This weekend during our D-Day re-enactment one of our guys took at shot to the head from a blank at about 3 feet.

He was wearing a German helmet, (the absolute best at deflecting blast away from the head), but still was put out of action.

He came back from the doctor today after we made him go for acting so strange.

He has a mild concussion, two ruptured ear drums, and 58% hearling loss in both ears.

Lesson here, be very careful where you aim, and be sure what you are shooting at.  These are dangerous toys we are playing with.  Had this been a real bullet..............

Ow!
These are not cap guns.

I always wondered how the heck vets kept most of their hearing. Lack of qtips in the field?

Wow!!

Thank God he's okay, though.

Quoted: Wow!! Thank God he's okay, though.

Thanks, but he never really was OK to begin with.
This was a shot from an M-1 that was blank adapted, he would likely be dead if it was a hit from one of our non-blank adapted Mausers.

Brandon Lee ( son of Bruce Lee )

Quoted: Brandon Lee ( son of Bruce Lee )

If i remember correctly he was killed when during a fight scene someone fired a pistol at him and that had some sort of debri in the barrel which turned into a projectile. The actual blank didnt kill him.

I believe Brandon Lees' death was caused by a live round somehow being mixed in with the blanks. At least that's what I remember reading.

Brandon Lee straight up took a .44 Magnum round. Nothing strange, just BLAM!

Quoted: Quoted: What was the actors name?? John Eric Hicksum (iirc) was supposed to be the next super star in Hollywood in the 80s...was playing with a blank gun, put it to his temple, and.... dead from a blank gun. I remember that, he was on some TV show where they were spies pretending to be fashion models or something like that. He put a blank to his temple and pulled the trigger, I guess the blank was one of the ones that has a solid piece of something in the crimping to keep teh powder in. I supposed it would harmless fall to the ground a few yards from the gun, but still comes out of the barrel with some force. I thought Brandon Lee's death was due to a bullet having come loose from a real bullet and lodged in the barrel, then it was expelled when a blank was fired behind it, I think. Anyway I was shocked that anyone could be a enough of  a jackass to have ANY live ammo on a movie set. Damn fool, I liked that kid too

Just the force of the blank itself could've done it. The "temple" is the thinest portion of the skull, externally, as it is a joint of several skull bones. Worse still the middle meningeal artery runs directly underneath. Hence any decent force to this area can fracture into, and tearing the artery causing an epidural hematoma. Rapid death ensues due to pressure on the brain--long story, however, remember the brain is inside a nonexpanding structure, the skull and has nowhere to go except down, resulting in tearing of the lower portion of the brain and brainstem herniation. Bad, bad, bad. Due to the fact that arteries bleed rapidly such an injury is therefore rapidly fatal.

Your anatomy lesson for the day

Quoted: i've always said you re-enactors are crazey...nutzy-cuckoo...bonkers, even! you violate every known rule of firearm safety.

In reality, we do.  Aiming a functional weapon at someone and pulling the trigger is not amoung the safest of acts.  I never really had a problem with it as we do multiple safety checks with our ammo, and I am not doing it with any ill intentions.  My motto, "shoot the medics first......but not ours, we might need him".

I do my best to follow the safety rules, but all of us have shot too close at one time or another.

realism is one thing...complete, moronic disregard for the safety and well-being of a fellow re-enactor is another thing altogether. firing a blank at point-blank range borders on the insane!

It was a direct violation of all standard and basic safety rules.  The guy feels like crap for doing it, but was new, and in the final rush to over-run the German lines, the situation became bigger than him, and he lost track.

We had the same problems with 8 new guys who had never taken the field.  My buddy and I were promoted to full corporals on the spot and were placed in charge of them.  Our solution, knowing there would be a close combat situation at the end, was to have them all be "dead" or "wounded" before the fighting was close.

i know you guys are 'hard core', but that kind of 'acting' is unnecessary. i can imagine the g.i. that pulled the trigger feels badly about his action, but that will not restore the hearing loss.

Unfortuantly accidents do happen, and hopefully a lesson was learned.  If not, then it was just stupidity.

yes, ober...you be careful out there! those aren't toys!

Exactly!

Great video taken by Smudge!

216.150.162.189/smudge/d_day03.wmv

We are at the far side of the line and can not be seen in this video.

OUTSTANDING video. Where do you guys do it at?

Very cool video!  I just watched Saving Private Ryan again last weekend, and what a great movie that is.

How many people in all were involved in the reenactment?  It must have taken a lot of time and effort to organize this event.

That flame thrower is freaken cool as hell, as long as your not on the opposing end of it.

The expanding gas out of a firearm will do incrediable damage, no projectile needed, just exjecta.

A few years back I used to help out a friend who runs a shooting school, teaching handgun self defence techniques. These well meaning students would show up the ported and compensated handguns. I would always demo what a comp will do for you other than ruin your night vision and make your ears ring. I would hold a long piece of card board over the ports while they fired the weapon. That brought home the point to them not to fire it close to their body in a retention postion. I suggested that they get a unported handgun for self defence.

Very common in contact wounds for the gas to do far more damage than the bullet, especially within the torso. In fact, using a deliberate contact shot is one way to enhance the wounding effect of a small pocket pistol.

Jeff Cooper once told the story of a friend's suicide. The man had been a combat Marine in the Pacific during WWII and had used the Japanese method of pulling the bullet from a rifle cartridge,  placing the muzzle of the rifle in his mouth and pulling the trigger with his toe. (no one ever figured out why they bothered to pull the bullets) It worked.

Rot, thanks for the heads up. I might have to defect to the west to escape the Russian hoardes.

Marauder, we do this one in Coneaut Ohio. It is in the far upper right hand corner of the state.  You can throw a rock and hit PA. (Literaly).  We do it each year towards the end of September.  I will post in the Ohio forum when it comes up next year.

Traker, there were about 100 G.I.'s with a jeep, and halftrack. They had full encampments the night before and the day of the event for the public to see.

I think we had about 70 Germans. Being machinegun heavy made up for our numbers though.I have nothing to do with set up, but i would guess it is pretty hard. Just getting the four aircraft and the Navy to cooperate would be bad enough.

The flame thrower sucks.  I have been in direct line of fire of it for two years now. 50 feet away, 20 feet in the air behind a thin wall it still forces you to the ground to cover up. I fully understand how the Japanese were terified of that weapon.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, but Campy, hearing protection is for whimps!  Seriously, no logical reason, especially for public displays.  In tactical battles, they put you at a disatvantage. We have been able to sneak up on people and "bayonet" them. Should we still wear them, yeah, are we going to, no..............

Ikor, the reason for pulling the bullet in the suicide, is to minimise the explosive effect on the head.  The head will still be damaged and bulge out, but won't always explode. This way the burial looks nicer.  The "06 round is much more powerful than the 6.5, or 7.7 Jap. rounds though.  I don't know if it would have had the less destructive suicide effect.

Newly released photo of me at D-Day being promoted to full Corpral (obergefreiter), and the Iron Cross Second Class.

I'm the short one in the middle with the Russian 1895 Nagant revolver tucked in my belt.  

(Just posting for clarification about Brandon Lee's death)

www.autobahn.mb.ca/~trainer/lee_article.html
www.bruceandbrandon.info/library/print/brandon/harris.html
www.thecrow.info/bl_docs.htm