The birdshot and the damage done

What happens when birdshot from a 28-gauge shotgun hits a target 30 yards away.

Published February 14, 2006 9:58PM (EST)

If you're unclear on the kind of damage that a 28-gauge shotgun can do, the paper that first reported on Dick Cheney's shooting of Harry Whittington has some visual help for you. A photographer for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times has simulated the accident by firing his own 28-gauge shotgun, loaded with birdshot, at a paper target 30 yards away -- the same distance that is said to have separated Cheney from Whittington when the vice president pulled the trigger. The result is up for viewing here.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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