Free: Contests & Raffles.
Those lungs are huge...Sent from my E6782 using Tapatalk
There is no air in the thorax outside of the lungs, unless there is a pneumothorax - a hole that allows air into the thorax. This is what causes a collapsed lung - air enters the thorax through the hole on the inhale, preventing the lung from inflating and thus preventing oxygenation of the blood. Thus, if you shoot an animal in the chest, you create the air space - but only after the shot, and as a result of lung(s) collapsing. Any shot that damages tissues within the chest cavity causes a hemothorax - blood in the chest cavity. Most shots to the chest cause both air and blood in the chest cavity, a hemopneumothorax. There is no void until the lung(s) collapse. A pneumothorax that doesn't damage the heart or lungs appreciably is a distressing but effective kill shot if both lungs collapse - I've seen it with a shot that breaks the sternum but doesn't hit heart or lung - either behind or through the front legs, or through the front of the chest below the thoracic inlet. The animal will go down very quickly as both lungs collapse, but will gasp horribly for an extended period as there is very little bleeding and the heart continues to pump with no appreciable hypovolemic shock - the classic sucking chest wound. Most people will "put it out of its misery" long before the heart stops beating due to lack of oxygen - cause of death is cardiomyopathy as the heart muscle dies. A glancing wound to the ribs may cause a lateral pneumothorax in which only one lung collapses. This is a high probability of a lost animal in a hunting situation. Some may clot over, allowing the lung to reinflate, and actually allowing the animal to recover. I suspect this is also why an animal with a collapsed lung will often go to water, as mud may plug the pneumothorax. It is possible, especially with lower velocity small calibers, to cause a hemothorax with no external pneumothorax - the entrance wound seals, the lung doesn't collapse, and the animal eventually dies as it bleeds out internally. This is quite often the explanation for the "perfectly healthy-looking" dead animal. (Others are acute disease and blunt force trauma, usually from a motor vehicle collision, which causes organs to rupture but with little to no external sign). I've had it happen once on a bull elk with an arrow - the hit looked great but penetration was only 1/2 the length of the shaft. The shaft nearly sealed the hole, although there was some bright red mist expelled when he was on a run. The pneumothorax sealed as soon as he slowed to a walk, no more blood except the occasional drip down his side from the entrance wound. I lost the sign at just over 400 yards. When I found him three days later, thanks to the birds, he had traveled nearly 1200 yards. Classic single lung hit without a persistent pneumothorax. I agree with those who suspect that a pass-through shot that appeared to go "just under the spine" is actually above the spine.
