Why do real bullets hurt?

Answer 1

In simple terms: think about the amount of physical trauma caused by getting hit by a car going 60 miles per hour. Now take the velocity of a car, and make it a LOT bigger. Now take the impact area and make it about several thousand times smaller.

That's an a greater amount of kinetic energy than a speeding car, impacting on a much small area. It shouldn't be hard to figure out why the physical damage of a bullet, if well placed, can easily kill someone.

and an even more simple term: bullets make holes. The person dies either because they bleed to death or because the bullet damages something vital like the heart, or a combination of both.

Answer 2

Yes and no according to the laws of Physics a .45 bullet will have a terminal velocity of 132 m/s (due to tumbling) this is inconsistant with a fatal shot, however if it hits you in the right place it can kill.

Answer 3

A simple comon-sense think-through of this question gives me this answer: When hit by, say a .38 caliber pistol bullet, your body is being struck by a hard object that weighs about half an ounce, moving at approximately 750 miles per hour. That object will penetrate a certain distance, destroying and displacing bone and tissue in front of it. That gives profound meaning to the phrase: "That's gotta hurt".