“Sounds like he had quite the magic bullet there.”
Pretty typical performance for a rifle round, especially one that is full metal jacketed. They are meant to penetrate barriers. They can go through a lot of flesh. Most rifle rounds and high powered pistol rounds can penetrate 18 inches of flesh easily.
Much depends on the bullet construction. Bullets meant to expand and use their energy quickly do not penetrate as much, but they do more damage in the distance they do penetrate.
Actually 22 rimfire is quite lethal. It penetrates well and has a tendency to bounce around a bit. It would be my weapon of choice in a Walking Dead world. Very little report. Highly accurate. Deadly in a simple head shot. And you can carry thousands of rounds with very little weight...
Indeed. I was referring more to the description of being struck in the arm and then traveling into the chest cavity. That’s quite a journey, although I could see in some situations that being a straight line. For example, if the criminal was using that arm to point a weapon at the young man. I guess that was probably the case.