Can a 50 cal sniper shot take your head off from 6 in away?

[paul1290]

That depends on a LOT of things.

Unfortunately, terminal ballistics becomes very uncertain when it comes to the precise effects of projectiles on non-uniform materials like human flesh and bone. There are so many little things that can make a big difference that making exact repeatable results can be troublesome.

Sure you can get fairly predictable results when it comes to materials that are the same throughout like metal, clothing, and even ballistics gel, but when it comes to human flesh things get really wierd really fast. In one case a round can go through someone's leg and they wouldn't notice and in another almost identical case the same round can cause severe bleeding and require immediate first aid.

What a lot of people don't realize is that there are still a lot of things we don't know about how bullets affect people. When it comes to human flesh, terminal ballistics is still very much a "trial and error" science where reliable patterns are still hard to find.

You can probably blame the sheer complexity of the human body and the difficulty of gathering accurate statistics for that.

Heck, we don't even have a complete theoretical model for the concept of "stopping power". There are still several conflicting theories on how "stopping power" actually works, all of them only explaining some results but not explaining others.

In short, unless your talking about the shot occuring in a carefully controlled laboratory environment where as many variable are eliminated as possible, you're simply not going to get a definitive answer to this that will apply to all situations.

[Hikaru]

it would make big hole, but it would be moving to fast to rip it clean off. The burns from being that close to the muzzle would also make you pretty crispy.

Oh you mean like if it missed by a really close margin? No. Fuck no. Those kids are idiots.

[editline]03:22AM[/editline]

You would defiantly hear it hiss by you though.

[cdlink14]

better question is, why would you be stood a foot away with a sniper rifle?

[Zakk]

Possibly if they shot you in the neck, right below the chin, it -could- decapitate you, but not turn your head into jelly.

:eng101:

[voteban]

a point blank sawed-off shotgun maybe

[TheBioproject]

Well, since there seems to be two different interpretations to this, I will answer both to the best of my knowledge

1. Shot in the face with muzzle of rifle 12 in. away:
Original hole will be .5 in. in diameter for a small amount of time, then at the round gets roughly 1/3 of the way through the head, temporary cavitation will occur, causing the skull to rupture due to extreme pressure. Long story short: you will make chunky gravy, but not a "true" decapitation unless shot in the neck.

2.Round fired from a .50 caliber rifle passes by your head 12 in. away:
All depends on the distance, as the round will loose speed over distance. If the muzzle of the rifle is dead-even with your ear, I'd say that the bullet is the least of your worries, but at ranges of a mile or so, the sonic boom of the round will MORE THAN LIKELY rupture your eardrum (so long as the pressure of the boom does not cause internal damage, as that can cause brain damage or death), causing severe bleeding and deafness. Long sort short: You can't hear out of one ear, but your head will be intact.

[DeadMollusk]

It won't be taken clean off. It'll be utterly obliterated. It's like shooting an ant with a .22LR.