"You don't wash the damn wound... stopping bleeding is primary. You clean it out when there aren't life threatening symptoms present. Generally all patching a gunshot wound is stuffing it with gauze and applying a pressure bandage."

"While overall it was a pretty realistic movie (according to my Drill Sergeants, anyway. Pro to having July 4th during my training, we actually got ot watch a movie), that part always got on my nerves. If it didn't hit an artery, all he had to do was apply a bandage to it. The location makes it hard as hell to get one in the right spot, but they can deal. It's his ass, he can sit on it to provide pressure if needed.

I've read it a bit on pressure points, but they never mentioned it at all in CLS training. Simply use dressings and bandages, and if it's bad enough, throw on a tourniquet. We were also told that in particularly hot combat, you'd throw on a tourniquet first with a basic dressing to protect the wound from MORE foreign objects and do actual aid after you get your ass out of the hot zone.


You really would leave the bullet in until you got somewhere safe and relatively sanitary. It's something you really don't want to have to do without specific training on it, as you can cause more harm than good ripping it out. If it isn't causing further damage, you may want to leave it. The heat of the bullet in the air sanitizes it, so you don't really have to worry about that. The infections from it being an open wound, maybe. Unless it's a powdered construction (and those are usually copper anyway) you don't have to worry about heavy metal poisoning."

"While overall it was a pretty realistic movie (according to my Drill Sergeants, anyway. Pro to having July 4th during my training, we actually got ot watch a movie), that part always got on my nerves. If it didn't hit an artery, all he had to do was apply a bandage to it. The location makes it hard as hell to get one in the right spot, but they can deal. It's his ass, he can sit on it to provide pressure if needed.

I've read it a bit on pressure points, but they never mentioned it at all in CLS training. Simply use dressings and bandages, and if it's bad enough, throw on a tourniquet. We were also told that in particularly hot combat, you'd throw on a tourniquet first with a basic dressing to protect the wound from MORE foreign objects and do actual aid after you get your ass out of the hot zone.


You really would leave the bullet in until you got somewhere safe and relatively sanitary. It's something you really don't want to have to do without specific training on it, as you can cause more harm than good ripping it out. If it isn't causing further damage, you may want to leave it. The heat of the bullet in the air sanitizes it, so you don't really have to worry about that. The infections from it being an open wound, maybe. Unless it's a powdered construction (and those are usually copper anyway) you don't have to worry about heavy metal poisoning."

"IF you are SURE you can get it out safely, 100% certain you can do it without causing further damage, sure you can try to get it out. LATER. In a mostly sterile environment. Because of the temporary expansion cavities nad the permanent expansion cavities (as flesh acts almost liek a fluid when impacted at such a high speed), the hole won't be the same size as the bullet. You WILL have ot stretch it open or cut it larger, that's why bullet removal is largely an invasive surgery."

"And that's if you can find the bullet, they're not always at the end of the wound channel. If it's hit a bone it can go anywhere. Or become deformed or fragment into Lord knows how many pieces.
One time, we took a lady to the ER who got shot in the lower back. Found the bullet in her shoe."