Thread: Darwin award

Originally Posted by Cordite

Reminds me of publicised stories from WW1 of soldiers saved by their pocket bibles stopping rifle bullets. Those "bullet stopping pocket bible" stories were also thoroughly perpetuated to underline how God was clearly on our side against the evil, baby-eating Germans.

No good book will stop a rifle bullet fired at combat distances. Ricochets and shrapnel are of course a different matter.

I suspect some misunderstanding could have lingered from such stories and thus contributed to this stupid "accident".

It is always necessary to know the distance factor. I am sure even a smallish book could stop a 8 mm projectile at sufficient distance or after a ricochet. BUT he would have had to hold a number of phone books to stop a 50 AE at less than a meter. I built a range for a forensics lab once, using phone books. No problem stopping 7.62x39 at 1 m in one phone book BUT we used to layer the books end on so they didn't shred too quickly.