Bullet beneath the skin - how does it look in slow motion?

**Ds J** · 17-05-2020, 10:43

This has been going through my mind for some time.

Many of us has found a bullet beneath the skin of a shot animal, and there are videos showing the impact of the bullet on the shooter's side of the animal.

Has anyone seen a slow motion recording of the other side of the animal? It must show a dome or triangular shape for a split second?

**TStone** · 17-05-2020, 10:47

The other side of the animal will be a dangerous place to be when it is getting shot, there is no guarantee that the bullet is going to stop under the skin.

I am sure that the skin stretches, absorbing the remaining energy of the bullet. So, yes I am confident that a dome of stretched skin forms for a fraction of a second. But I have not witnessed the event.

I have found several bullets protruding from the skin, the shank of the bullet penetrating the skin while the expanded part of the, now reversed bullet, got trapped in the skin.

**Adoons** · 17-05-2020, 10:52

Ds, have never gave thought to it. I just presumed it is just stopping there below the skin, but then when now thinking about the toughness of animal hide you may be correct that a "tent" is formed on the far side that fall back again. If thinking about all the animals I have skinned, there have been instances where the bullet is found just under the skin with no bleeding in the area and then others had an area of blood under the skin surrounding the bullet that would then be the area where the skin was torn from underlying tissue so that blood could enter the area.

**Ds J** · 17-05-2020, 11:10

Originally Posted by TStone

The other side of the animal will be a dangerous place to be when it is getting shot, there is no guarantee that the bullet is going to stop under the skin.

Agree. It would indeed be very stupid to stand on the wrong
side of a penetratable target. It does not mean that it has not happened for some reason. It would be interesting to see what happens.

**treeman** · 17-05-2020, 13:54

Have pondered this for years, must be a large zone of velocity that falls into behind skin, from just getting there too just not getting through. Never considered the visible aspect.
There is a video of a donkey being shot full frontal in chest with 375 HH. Its amazing how donkey actually expands for a moment.

**Ds J** · 17-05-2020, 14:36

The bullet is too slow to penetrate the skin a second time, and there is no rib cage to prevent the skin from extending like on the side of entry. And since the skin behind the shoulder is loose and tough, it only makes sense that the leather will expand quite far when pushed by a bullet.

**Messor** · 17-05-2020, 19:04

Originally Posted by Ds J

The bullet is too slow to penetrate the skin a second time, and there is no rib cage to prevent the skin from extending like on the side of entry. And since the skin behind the shoulder is loose and tough, it only makes sense that the leather will expand quite far when pushed by a bullet.

Take a pencil, sharpen it good, stick yourself on the inside of your forearm and try and establish how hard you push before it really hurts, usually little pressure is needed for that. Now saw the tip off making it flat, then do it again, you probably won’t be able to push hard enough to hurt yourself.

Pressure is force over area, most modern bullets are spitzer bullets that expands inside the animal, and in aqueous tissue the bullet might ride some sort of supercavitation bubble(much less than flat nose bullets). The time it reaches the skin on the opposite side much of the original force is gone, also the surface area of the bullet is many times greater, and if pressure is force over area the bullet just don’t have enough anymore. And even if it rode a supercavitation bubble of some sorts the hide is just sinuous tissue which lacks that function, basically just a strong net.

Which is why I never subscribed to the notion of a bullet must exit an animal. If two bullets are shot and they both retain the same weight, yet one exits and the other does not, that only means one expanded more causing more damage internally, losing more momentum in the process. That is why a dangerous game bullet is designed not to expand, it doesn’t sacrifice momentum for wound creation.