Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call had it all wrong....

When my wife, Crystal, was a teen-age bride (married to her first husband), Pete went out one morning to do some disking. He took along his Ruger Single Six which he kept in a holster wired to the steering column of the tractor. At some point, the pistol fell out and Pete bent over to try and catch it. When the pistol hit the floor, it fired, sending a .22 slug into his upper chest below the collar bone. Crystal drove him into Lordsburg to the only clinic which was operated by an old country doctor whom everyone called Doc Baxter.

Doc Baxter took him into the exam room and Crystal sat anxiously out in the waiting room. After a bit, Doc Baxter stuck his head out and said, "Hon, come on in here." Pete was lying there with a perfect little round .22 caliber hole in his chest. Doc Baxter said, "Hon, see this hole here?" and Crystal nodded her head. He said, "See how he isn't breathing in and out of it?" Crystal nodded again, and he said, "That's a good thing. We'll give him a tetanus shot and you can take him home." She was a bit flabbergasted and said, "Aren't you going take the bullet out?" Doc Baxter replied, "Oh, hell no, Hon. We'd have to make a way bigger hole to get it out. He'll be fine."

Crystal was still somewhat apprehensive, so the next day she insisted that they drive 140 miles to Las Cruces and see her old family doctor. He examined Pete and asked her, "Who treated him yesterday?" When she told him, he exclaimed, "Oh, Old Doc Baxter. He's treated more gunshot wounds than any of us here in Las Cruces will ever see. I'm sure that Pete will be fine."

Turns out Homer (the Ancient Greek, not the Simpson) was all about describing injuries and their outcomes more'n 3,000 years ago. Clearly him and his audience were familiar with edged weapons and the consequences thereof.

The Ancient Greeks and Trojans were spear throwing fools but every once in a while someone gets stuck with an arrow, like the guy who was shot in buttock while running away and gets stuck through the bladder. That guy dies pretty quick so it must have nicked an artery.

One guy elsewhere fatally hit by an arrow in the neck at the base of the jaw, dropped right away.

This guy stuck through the shoulder plate of his armor does have someone pull the arrow out, but it was probably shallow as he's back in action right away...

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Iliad5.htm

when glorious Pandarus, Lycaon’s son, saw Diomedes rage across the plain, routing the army ahead, he swiftly bent his curved bow, and aimed at him, striking him firmly, as he ran, on the right shoulder-plate of his cuirass, so the sharp arrow pierced clean through, and the armour ran with blood...

...the swift shaft failed to down Diomedes, who drew back to the shadow of his chariot, where he called to Sthenelus, Capaneus’ son: ‘Quick, my lad, down here, and pull this bitter dart from my flesh.’

Leaping from the chariot, as he spoke, Sthenelus touched ground beside him and pulled the sharp arrow from his shoulder, so the blood soaked through the woven tunic.


Ten guys killed outright with arrows by one guy, the two hits we get descriptions of both quick kills in the chest. The archer in turn felled with a rock, by the shoulder where the collarbone meets the neck "a fatal spot"...

I have worked with all my might and never rested, from the moment we drove them back towards Ilium. I have watched and waited, killing them with my bow. Eight long-headed arrows I have let fly, and each has found its mark in the body of some young warrior. But here is the mad dog I cannot reach.’

With this he shot another arrow from the bow, aiming for Hector, eager to strike him. Hector he missed, but struck peerless Gorgythion in the chest, Priam’s mighty son, born of lovely Castianeira of Aesyme, goddess-like in form, whom Priam once married. His head, weighed down by the helmet, fell to one side, like a garden poppy heavy with seed and spring rain.

Then Teucer fired again at Hector, eager once more to strike him, but again he missed, Apollo making his arrow swerve. Yet he struck Archeptolemus, Hector’s brave charioteer, on the chest by the nipple. He fell from the chariot, forcing the galloping horses to swerve, his strength faded, and his spirit was loosed.

Hector’s mind was darkened by dreadful sorrow for his comrade’s death. Yet he left him there, despite his grief, and called Cebriones his brother, who was nearby, to take the reins, and he instantly obeyed. Hector himself leapt from his shining chariot with a dreadful cry, and grasping a rock in his hand ran at Teucer, his heart urging him on to the kill. Now Teucer had drawn a sharp bolt from his quiver, and laid it to the string but, as he drew, Hector of the gleaming helm struck him with the jagged stone by the shoulder where the collarbone joins the neck and chest, a fatal spot. It caught Teucer as he aimed in his eagerness, breaking the string. The hand and wrist were numbed; he sank to his knees, and remained there the bow falling from his hand.

A guy struck by an arrow in the thigh and taken out of the fight.

When noble Eurypylus, Euaemon’s son, saw Ajax fending off showers of missiles, he ran to support him, and hurling his gleaming spear struck a general, Apisaon, Phausius’ son, in the liver under the midriff, bringing him down. Then standing over him he started to strip the armour from his body. But Paris, seeing him, quickly fired his bow, and his arrow struck Eurypylus in the right thigh.

Hampered by the broken shaft, Eurypylus cheated death by taking cover among his comrades... ...the Greeks gathered round the wounded Eurypylus, crouched behind sloping shields, with outstretched lances.

...and the aftermath...

Patroclus... ...met Eurypylus, Zeus-born son of Euaemon, limping from the field with an arrow-wound in the thigh. Sweat was pouring from his head and shoulders, and dark blood ran from the vicious wound, but his mind was still clear....

...he put his arm round the warrior’s waist, and helped him to his hut. When Eurypylus’ squire saw them, he spread ox-hides on the floor, and Patroclus lowered the wounded man to the ground, and cut the sharp arrow-head from his thigh. Next he washed the dark blood from the place with warm water, and rubbing a bitter pain-killing herb between his hands sprinkled it on the flesh to numb the agony. Then the blood began to clot, and ceased to flow.

And finally, a guy struck all the way through the foot "pulls the arrow out" presumably forwards, but is taken out of the fight by the pain.

Diomedes was still busy stripping brave Agastrophus of his shining breastplate, the shield from his shoulder, and his heavy helmet, when Paris drew back the string and let fly. The shaft did not leave his bow in vain, striking Diomedes on the flat of his right foot, passing clean through and fixing itself in the earth....

....Odysseus the spearman stepped up to give him cover. Then Diomedes sat to the rear and agony shot through him, as he pulled the arrowhead from his foot. Mounting his chariot then, in pain, he ordered his charioteer to head for the hollow ships.

Still looking for a reference to "pushing the arrow on through".

Birdwatcher

You may have to look at surgical texts to find one.

FWIW, the most commonly used modern ER method for removing fishhooks from people is to "push it on through", cut off the barb, and then pull the body of the hook back out. Alternatively with some hooks that have barbs on the shaft of the hook you cut off the eye and push the hook through. These techniques are described in multiple surgical texts. Nobody seems to know how the technique was invented, or where, or when, but it seems to be an ancient method.

(Myself, I pull most fishhooks straight out with forceps and a quick, sharp tug. Works great, causes less tissue damage, doesn't require anesthetic, and has less risk of infection. It's a surprisingly recently developed technique, actually. Most people still use the "push-through" method.)

I am aware of similar techniques being used for other penetrating foreign bodies, although these days most larger FB's are taken to the OR for removal.

In the days prior to anesthetic and antibiotics, particularly if a bone was fractured, amputation of the limb was the treatment of choice.

High School buddy of mine accidentally shot me in the leg with his .22 rifle once while we were out shooting rabbits at night. We were both about 17 at the time. The bullet barely missed my femoral artery and exited my leg with out striking any bone. Yes it hurt, but did not bleed all that much. Just a entrance and exit hole on either side of that leg.

Went to my old family doctor, and he had the nurse clean it out with what looked like a big ass pipe cleaner or brush, with lots of alcohol / iodine. That hurt a hell of a lot worse than the actual gunshot did. I was just damn glad he wasn't shooting Stinger's

Tooth absesses/ infections took extremely high toll from much archaeological evidence.

My son had a fairly large hook removed from his thumb by a nurse at an ER. The nurse slid a hypodermic needle down along the curve of the hook and put the hole in the needle on the barb of the hook. She pressed down the eye of the hook and held the needle on the barb, while I just slid the hook back out by pulling on a thread that was looped in the curve of the hook. She made it look easy as could be. It seemed a lot less traumatic to my son than trying to force the point on through or yanking the hook out backwards against the barb. It didn't take any time to heal and according to my son, never got very sore.

I used a pair of vice grips and a good pull on this one back in the spring. The end of the hook was against the bone so it couldn't be pushed through. Minor consumption of alcohol was used to dull the pain...if needed again the RX will be changed to include major consumption.

As I remember the movie Lonesome Dove, the arrow in Gus was pushed on thru by the other guy, not pulled out.

Medical history is full of poor of even stupid medical practices by todays standard. That doesn't mean it wasn't done with good intentions.

The way I recall it, Gus had two arrows in his left leg. Pea Eye, following Gus's direction, first tried to pull it out, it wouldn't go, so he pushed it on through.

The second arrow was stuck in the bone.

Birdwatcher

You are correct, Birdy. If I've watched that Movie once, I bet I've seen it at least 50 times. It's one of my favorites, of what I call the "modern" Westerns.