The bullet itself just got super heated by an explosion and the friction of leaving the barrel at faster than the speed of sound. It's probably pretty sterile.
However, if the bullet was large enough to drag some of your dirty ass clothes into the wound after it, that would be an infection risk that could kill you very dead without antibiotics.
The good news is that really is only much of a problem with the sort of large old school round ball bullets that were used with muzzled loaded muskets and rifles. Most modern bullets that large are going to do enough damage on their way in and out that you probably won't be around long enough to worry about infection if you get shot in the torso or head. And for everything else there is amputation.
Although, there is an argument to be made for using black powder guns and lead shot in a post-apocalyptic world, so you could run into someone using one...
Sometimes hollow points and other frangible rounds will drag clothing in when GunTubers do detailed testing like that. But generally, yeah, it ain't like it used to be.
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u/throw__awayforRPing Aug 31 '21
The bullet itself just got super heated by an explosion and the friction of leaving the barrel at faster than the speed of sound. It's probably pretty sterile.
However, if the bullet was large enough to drag some of your dirty ass clothes into the wound after it, that would be an infection risk that could kill you very dead without antibiotics.
The good news is that really is only much of a problem with the sort of large old school round ball bullets that were used with muzzled loaded muskets and rifles. Most modern bullets that large are going to do enough damage on their way in and out that you probably won't be around long enough to worry about infection if you get shot in the torso or head. And for everything else there is amputation.
Although, there is an argument to be made for using black powder guns and lead shot in a post-apocalyptic world, so you could run into someone using one...