title: Experimental blowgun injuries, ballistic aspects of modern blowguns.
abstract: Slender thin arrows blown through modern blowguns can cause serious injuries. In this paper we present some data regarding the terminal ballistics of such an arrow when blown by a young male who had no previous experience with the weapon. The penetration depth into wood was similar to that of an arrow fired from a pistol-crossbow. Further, the blowgun arrow could pass through more than 7 mm of porcine bone. The velocities at a distance of 2 m from the blowgun of three different types of arrows having weights of 1-1.6 g and diameters between 1 and 5 mm were between 22 and 32 m/s, giving an energy of 0.3 to 0.6 J. When blown from a blowgun, these slender modern arrows can thus penetrate human skin and even the cranial bone of a child and cause serious injury.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine in Stockholm of the National Board of Forensic Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Karlssona
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ståhlingb
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000293:injuries*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005389:Firearms; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D012867:Skin / Q000293:injuries; D013552:Swine; D014950:Wounds, Penetrating / Q000209:etiology*