Marshal Dillon

varian

just got shot in the left arm, again

Ricci.Wright

That's maybe over 100 times I think. 

bullshot

Hope he saved the lead.

Smitty500mag

Just winged him.

Getting shot in the shoulder or arm with a .45 Colt would shatter bones but in the old west movies it was just a minor flesh wound. 

Grasshopper

Doc says it went though, Kitty is taking care of the wound.

Ditch-Runner

 oh the good old westerns 
  as a kid I started to think being shot was not that big of deal unless there was no blood or hole in your shirt and you were the bad guy of course they always died with no visible signs LOL , 
      also  when John W would get shot he would just shove a kerchief in the hole or use it to wrap around a arm or leg  for a day or two then back to the fight maybe a splash of whisky on the wound and a couple swallows . 

   speaking of it was amazing how fast a shot of whisky would have effect on all the old westerns . sorry bob here  have a drink and bite down on this stick then I am going to cut your leg off with this dull knife I waved over the fire and sprinkled with whiskey on ,,  what  was that " no never did it before  but I did stay at a holiday express "

allen griggs

Yes, in the old Westerns, a shot to the shoulder, or to the hand, was no big deal.   "Flesh wound."  I just watched "Red River" and the guy who was stealing sugar and caused the stampede, one man was killed.  John Wayne was going to whip him with a bullwhip and the guy was drawing on John Wayne, and Montgomery Clift shot the sugar thief in the hand, blew his  Colt out of his hand, which saved his life, because John Wayne would have shot him right between the eyes.
  And John said "You shot him you fix him up."   I guess Walter Brennan had a surgical suite in the back of that chuck wagon.  I guess Montgomery Clift had gotten a medical degree during the Civil War.

I got a job as a paramedic and we were based at a hospital.  I not only treated patients in the field, but I worked on them in the ER.  I got to look at the xrays.   Bullets show up very well on xrays.

And I learned that just "winging" somebody in the shoulder is usually a big deal.  The lungs go way up there, so you can have a collapsed lung.   The subclavian artery runs through there, put a bullet through that and you will die.   And of course you have the shoulder blade and the collar bone.  Repairing those bones is a real mess.  I am not sure how many bone surgeons were living near The Ponderosa in 1870.
As for the hand, there are about 20 little bones in the hand.  You catch a .45 slug in the hand in Dodge City in 1875, you would be crippled for life,  which would be pretty short if you died of gangrene a week later.

firstharmonic

They were strictly entertainment, not documentaries. I enjoyed them as a kid and still am as an old guy.

allen griggs

"No need in burying. Worms have to eat also"

No, he said "Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms."

Ridefar

Gunsmoke is my Go-To show these days.

Favorites are the first couple years when the intro has Matt walking through Boot Hill.

Doc was very sarcastic and ball busting and Miss Kitty was some hot stuff.

Matt would b-slap or punch some jerk just because he deserved it.

Those were the days......

hillbille

I remember an old brown dog getting it between the eyes too, gotta wonder if the dog ever thought of wetting down his blanket at night.............

Grasshopper

allen griggs said:

Yes, in the old Westerns, a shot to the shoulder, or to the hand, was no big deal.   "Flesh wound."  I just watched "Red River" and the guy who was stealing sugar and caused the stampede, one man was killed.  John Wayne was going to whip him with a bullwhip and the guy was drawing on John Wayne, and Montgomery Clift shot the sugar thief in the hand, blew his  Colt out of his hand, which saved his life, because John Wayne would have shot him right between the eyes.
  And John said "You shot him you fix him up."   I guess Walter Brennan had a surgical suite in the back of that chuck wagon.  I guess Montgomery Clift had gotten a medical degree during the Civil War.

I got a job as a paramedic and we were based at a hospital.  I not only treated patients in the field, but I worked on them in the ER.  I got to look at the xrays.   Bullets show up very well on xrays.

And I learned that just "winging" somebody in the shoulder is usually a big deal.  The lungs go way up there, so you can have a collapsed lung.   The subclavian artery runs through there, put a bullet through that and you will die.   And of course you have the shoulder blade and the collar bone.  Repairing those bones is a real mess.  I am not sure how many bone surgeons were living near The Ponderosa in 1870.
As for the hand, there are about 20 little bones in the hand.  You catch a .45 slug in the hand in Dodge City in 1875, you would be crippled for life,  which would be pretty short if you died of gangrene a week later.

Just for clarification, it was James Arness not John Wayne,.. I just watched it AGAIN also. God I love those 50s-early 60s westerns but I think I have seen them all.

Junkballer

After catching 2 rds in Vietnam I learned why cowboys covered a wounded person with a blanket even out in the desert after they were shot.  With heavy bleeding it's like sitting at the North Pole in the winter stark-* naked and uncontrollable shaking 

Smitty500mag

allen griggs said:

And I learned that just "winging" somebody in the shoulder is usually a big deal.  The lungs go way up there, so you can have a collapsed lung.   

I worked with a guy back in the 70s that found that out the hard way. His wife had left him and he thought if he shot himself to make it look like attempted suicide she might come back home. So he shot himself with a .22 rifle up away from his heart toward his right shoulder and much to his surprise it was bad, really bad and he could hardly breath and thought he really had committed suicide. He called an ambulance and they got him to the hospital and he survived the ordeal but it was not a good time. Besides that his wife never came back home either. It just confirmed what she had said all along that he was a stupid idiot. 

truthful

I love the first 6 years or so of Gunsmoke. It started going downhill until Chester left and Festus arrived. I hate the later years in which Festus is the main character and Dillon only appears in the first few minutes as he is leaving town.

varian

there were two movies titled Red River  1948 with John Wayne and a remake in 1988 with James Arness

allen griggs

"So he shot himself with a .22 rifle up away from his heart toward his right shoulder and much to his surprise it was bad, really bad and he could hardly breath and thought he really had committed suicide. He called an ambulance and they got him to the hospital and he survived the ordeal but it was not a good time."
That's right.  He had watched too many episodes of Bonanza.

And he also learned something that I learned in 14 years working in the hospital.  Don't knock the .22 LR
It is a vicious man-killer.

Your co worker had a collapsed lung and the ER doc had to insert a "chest tube."  I watched this being done many times it was always fascinating.  Sometimes from a car wreck or stabbing but usually from a GSW.
The chest tube is about 3/4 inch diameter and 18 inches long.  Doc makes a 1 1/2 inch long incision with the scalpel between the ribs, on the side where the lung is collapsed.  And he sets that big tube next to the incision, and he shoves it in there about  6 inches deep.
You ought to see that patient squeal when the chest tube is inserted!  Damn, it hurts to watch!

Smitty500mag

Allen I can tell you one even worse. I had a friend that kept his old .44 Mag Ruger Black Hawk under his mattress. One evening he was changing sheets on his bed and when he pulled the sheet out the gun hit the floor on the hammer and BOOM right through the chest. It was an old single action Black Hawk that didn't have the transfer bar. It was a miricle that the hollow point didn't open. He said he was lying on the floor and could hear the neighbors that had come in. One of the said "it looks like he's a goner" He lived out in the boonies in KY and they couldn't find the keys to his car to take him to the hospital and it took forever for the ambulance to get there. He said the last thing he remembered was the doctor shoving something into his chest. He didn't wake up until 2 days later he said.

He showed me where the bullet entered his chest and where it exited out of his shoulder blade in the rear. Man I don't see how it missed his heart and also how it didn't blow a giant hole out the back going through the shoulder blade. Maybe god said "I'll teach you a lesson and I'll let you survive in order for you to show others what an idiot you are so they don't put their single action revolver under their mattress also".

Ditch-Runner

allen griggs said:

"So he shot himself with a .22 rifle up away from his heart toward his right shoulder and much to his surprise it was bad, really bad and he could hardly breath and thought he really had committed suicide. He called an ambulance and they got him to the hospital and he survived the ordeal but it was not a good time."
That's right.  He had watched too many episodes of Bonanza.

And he also learned something that I learned in 14 years working in the hospital.  Don't knock the .22 LR
It is a vicious man-killer.

Your co worker had a collapsed lung and the ER doc had to insert a "chest tube."  I watched this being done many times it was always fascinating.  Sometimes from a car wreck or stabbing but usually from a GSW.
The chest tube is about 3/4 inch diameter and 18 inches long.  Doc makes a 1 1/2 inch long incision with the scalpel between the ribs, on the side where the lung is collapsed.  And he sets that big tube next to the incision, and he shoves it in there about  6 inches deep.
You ought to see that patient squeal when the chest tube is inserted!  Damn, it hurts to watch!

   I can vouch for a chest tube hurting . long story but fast forward the doc came in my hospital room , said well we have to insert a chest tube to drain your chest cavity  and its going to hurt  sorry we not going to knock you out  I think because I had just come out of surgery for the second time in a coupe days they thought my lungs had filled up with fluid  from my by pass but noooo  and oooppps it not in your lung  its in your chest pressing on your lungs 
I still have the scar and the memory 

 back to the post topic
as unrealistic  as some of the the old westerns are I still enjoy watching them and have spend many a night binge watching them all night .  
by the way any of you ever  point your handgun up and then sling your  pistol downward as you shoot  I hear it gives the bullet a extra 100 fps 

allen griggs

This is an out-take from a Gunsmoke episode.  It featured Margaret Hamilton, also know as the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz.   Margaret threw in a few lines of her own and this version was not played on tv.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ngveiYIaeQ