Why isnt shooting the back of the head more common?

[TheLastStraw]

The skull is weaker in the back plus there is less tissue to travel through, the brain stem is very easy to pick out from the back of the head

Judging the angle from putting the barrel in your mouth seems very easy to mess up

You can saw a shotgun down to being inches long or use a stick to push down on the trigger

Time and time again this seems the only method I feel comfortable with
Also when there is an "execution" like you see in movies it is almost always a shot in the back of the head..it just feels fool proof to me but at the same time I'm seeking validations or any thing to be cautious of

 

[ArtVandelay]

Seems like it would be hard to aim from the back since you can't see the angle of the barrel. Temple is supposed to be pretty effective.

 

[TiredHorse]

Aiming accurately at the back of your own head is surprisingly difficult. Try it not with your finger, but with something like a pen or a stick, something like a gun barrel that doesn't give you proprioceptic feedback. Try it with something heavy, too, like a gun. Aim the pen (or whatever), hold it, and then, without shifting it, go and look in a mirror: you might be surprised how far up, down, or off to one side you're aiming. Make sure you look at a diagram of the head, showing the location of the brainstem, and compare that with where you're aiming.

Temple is supposed to be pretty effective.

NO. It is NOT reliably effective. It is Hollywood. Aiming at the temple, the point of aim is nowhere near the all-important brainstem. Can it work? Yes, if you're using a large enough caliber gun producing enough hydrostatic shock, but even then it can also go very badly. A friend of mine tried to CTB with a shot to the temple: the force of the shot blew his eyes out of their sockets and vegetabalized him, but he didn't die until his family took him off life support. It was a very, very unpleasant situation for all involved.

 

[Mrs.O'Leary'sCow]

A friend of mine tried to CTB with a shot to the temple: the force of the shot blew his eyes out of their sockets and vegetabalized him, but he didn't die until his family took him off life support. It was a very, very unpleasant situation for all involved.

Do you know the caliber of the gun?

 

[Sick Boy]

it would be very uncomfortable and difficult to pull the trigger from behind

 

[ArtVandelay]

NO. It is NOT reliably effective. It is Hollywood. Aiming at the temple, the point of aim is nowhere near the all-important brainstem.

Sorry about your friend. On lostallhope.com I read that the temple is likely to be more effective than aiming at the brain stem from the rear. I thought that was a reliable source but evidently not.

 

[TiredHorse]

Sorry about your friend. On lostallhope.com I read that the temple is likely to be more effective than aiming at the brain stem from the rear. I thought that was a reliable source but evidently not.

I apologize; my bad: I thought you were saying aiming at the temple is a good method in general. So yes, compared to shooting yourself in the back of the head, I would have to agree that it's a better option just for the ease of aiming --but it's still nowhere near as reliable as aiming into your mouth or behind your ear, and it depends on having a larger caliber handgun (.45, .357, 10mm). As you can tell, I would argue strenuously against either of those two options.

As a side note, I've always wondered why shooting into your throat isn't a popular option. NOT up under your chin --that has a lower chance of success than the temple-- but aiming generally toward the back of your neck. Guessing by the general anatomy, it should get the bullet in the right vicinity while avoiding the majority of the protective boney structures, as well as being less aesthetically offensive than putting a gun in your mouth. I AM NOT ADVOCATING THIS, just musing.

Do you know the caliber of the gun?

I'm not 100% certain. I heard both .357 and .38, both of which were plausible with his gun knowledge. Either would have been effective had he aimed properly; neither guaranteed success despite being aimed IMproperly.

 

[TAW122]

TiredHorse once again provides really good information. Aiming to the back of the head is tricky and not as reliable as behind the ear or into the mouth. As far as aiming down the throat, I suppose the idea is to hit the spine and sever the top part of it, resulting in death, however, I'm not too confident on this as I'm more afraid of ending up a quadriplegic doing it that way. Thus, if I am going to attempt, I'd go with the mouth since it's most direct and reliable (sure, it would be messy, therefore, I would consider my environment before CTB'ing via firearm).

Edit: I guess that could work, if aiming for the Adam's apple. I'm not sure how destroying the Adam's apple would result in death, maybe through serious blood loss or something?

 

[TiredHorse]

Oops: I more meant aiming straight at the throat rather than down it --aiming for the Adam's apple. It would essentially be aiming very similarly to as if you had the muzzle in your mouth.

 

[InkBlot]

Remember the bad guy from SuperTroopers? In real life he tried to CTB by 9mm to the temple the day of his diabetic amputation. He called the cops on himself, the phone call is online for people to listen to. It sounds like after they arrive, theyre kinda shitty towards him...

Ive heard in the mouth, up at a small angle, 30 degrees or less, and youre golden. Look at skull anatomy, overlay that with a handgun or shotgun. Nothing smaller than a .40 caliber. Preferably with a mouth full of water to transfer shock to soft tissue more effectively. The human brain can experience pain at around 119m/s, a .40 s&w round averages 1,000 fps, or roughly 333m/s. Your stem should be gone before you can probably even hear the gun finish its cycle.

Other positions of the gun are either ineffective, or radically dangerous. Behind the head was actually discovered and used by Russians afaik as the execution of choice.

 

[spanishguy22]

Remember the bad guy from SuperTroopers? In real life he tried to CTB by 9mm to the temple the day of his diabetic amputation. He called the cops on himself, the phone call is online for people to listen to. It sounds like after they arrive, theyre kinda shitty towards him...

Ive heard in the mouth, up at a small angle, 30 degrees or less, and youre golden. Look at skull anatomy, overlay that with a handgun or shotgun. Nothing smaller than a .40 caliber. Preferably with a mouth full of water to transfer shock to soft tissue more effectively. The human brain can experience pain at around 119m/s, a .40 s&w round averages 1,000 fps, or roughly 333m/s. Your stem should be gone before you can probably even hear the gun finish its cycle.

Other positions of the gun are either ineffective, or radically dangerous. Behind the head was actually discovered and used by Russians afaik as the execution of choice.

When shooting, apart from having a firm hold, you shouldn't ever try to anticipate recoil right? Just hold it still with your left and trigger with right?

 

[InkBlot]

When shooting, apart from having a firm hold, you shouldn't ever try to anticipate recoil right? Just hold it still with your left and trigger with right?

Recoil wont matter, you shouldnt need more than 1 shot/ nor will you need to "get back on target" like in a regular situation. Its gonna bounce around in your mouth, hell use your teeth and take a bite.

 

[spanishguy22]

Recoil wont matter, you shouldnt need more than 1 shot/ nor will you need to "get back on target" like in a regular situation. Its gonna bounce around in your mouth, hell use your teeth and take a bite.

ok thx 4 feedbak