Hand & Fingers: Revolver: Straight Through

The ball smashes through the knuckle of your trigger finger and out the back of your hand, and the finger goes with it, hanging by a strip of skin. The doctor takes one look, pours you whiskey, and finishes with shears what the lead began.

• Trigger finger amputated at the knuckle, the stump cauterized and stitched with silk
• Hand bound in a boxing-glove bandage; no shooting, dealing or roping for 7 days, then everything relearned around the gap
• Laudanum haze and phantom itching where the finger used to be for 2-3 days
• /me cradles the bandaged hand against their chest, still feeling a finger that is not there

Recovery Stump closes in 7 days under a doctor's care; the finger is gone for good.·Doctor, urgently

The soft ball flattens against your middle knuckles and plows out the back of the hand, dragging glove leather and bone grit with it. The doctor probes both holes for cloth, splints two broken metacarpals, and warns you the hand heals crooked if you use it.

• Two metacarpals broken, hand splinted flat to a board for 7 days
• No gripping anything heavier than a spoon; guns, reins and cards are out for the week
• Back of the hand swollen tight and purple to the wrist for days
• /me flexes the splinted fingers a hair and goes white at the grinding inside

Recovery 7 days splinted with a doctor, near twice that crooked and aching without one.·Doctor, urgently

The ball passes under the skin of your palm and out the heel, slicing two of the cords that curl your fingers. Your ring and little finger lie flat and dead-looking while the doctor stitches the tendons back together with silk and swears at the lamplight.

• Ring and little finger will not curl for 5-6 days while the silk-stitched tendons knit
• Hand splinted with the fingers bent, like holding an invisible glass
• No pistol work, roping or fist-fighting for 6 days, one popped stitch and those fingers stay lazy

Recovery 6 days with a doctor's silk and splint, 10 stiff and clumsy without.·Doctor, urgently

In through the palm neat as a punch, out the back like a burst feed sack. The exit is a ragged star the size of a half dollar, and the doctor spends the evening picking glove leather out of it before packing both holes with carbolic-soaked lint.

• Exit wound packed and re-dressed daily; bleeds through the bandage the first 2 days
• Hand wrapped thick, no shooting or dealing for 5 days, weak grip after
• A star-shaped scar on the back of the hand for life

Recovery 5-6 days with carbolic and daily dressings, 9 or more if it festers untended.·Doctor required

The ball drills through your palm and clips a metacarpal on the way out, not broken clean, but chipped, and every squeeze of the hand tells you so. The doctor washes both holes with carbolic and buddy-splints the finger above the cracked bone.

• Middle finger splinted straight for 4-5 days; the hand half-works around it
• No revolver in that hand for 4 days, recoil on a chipped bone will drop you to your knees
• Deep ache in the palm whenever you grip, worse on cold mornings

Recovery 4-5 days splinted with a doctor, 8 if you keep working the hand.·Doctor required

The ball carries a plug of your wool glove clean into the channel and leaves it there. By the time a doctor threads a probe through and hooks the sodden wad out, the holes are hot and weeping, and he washes the track with carbolic until you howl.

• Both holes syringed with carbolic daily for 3 days, it burns worse than the shot did
• Low fever the first night; hand hot, red and useless for 3-4 days
• /me peels a stiff, yellowed bandage away from the palm with their teeth gritted

Recovery 4 days once the wound runs clean, a dangerous festering week if the wool stays in.·Doctor required

Square through the middle of the palm, missing bone by the width of a playing card. Two neat holes, front and back, but the bruise between them stiffens the whole hand into a claw by morning.

• Hand curls into a stiff half-fist for 3-4 days; prying it open waters your eyes
• Can hold reins gingerly, cannot fan a hammer or shuffle a deck for 4 days
• Matching coin-sized scars in the palm and the back of the hand

Recovery 4 days with a doctor's washing and sling, 7 toughing it out.·Doctor required

The ball tunnels through the fat pad at the base of your thumb and out the wrist side. The thumb still moves, but the muscle that pinches it shut is torn through, and your grip pours away like water through the hole.

• Thumb strapped to the palm for 3-4 days; no pinching, buckling or hammer-cocking
• Anything gripped slips, dropped cups, dropped cards, a dropped iron once
• /me watches the coffee cup slide straight out of their bandaged grip

Recovery 4 days strapped with a doctor's care, 6-7 clumsy days without.·Doctor required

In and out through the meat of the palm's edge, bone untouched. The doctor runs carbolic through the channel, watches it drip pink out the far side, and pronounces it the tidiest hole he's plugged all month.

• Hand bandaged palm-to-wrist for 3 days; grip at half strength
• No fast-draw or rope work for 3 days, sore for a few after
• Two puckered scars you could line a pencil through

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's wash, 5-6 if you tough it out.·Doctor advised

The ball threads the gap between two metacarpals like a needle, spreading them but breaking neither. The back of your hand swells up like a toad by nightfall, and every finger feels borrowed.

• Whole hand puffed and tight for 2-3 days, rings come off now or get cut off later
• Fingers move but slow and dumb; no card tricks, fine sewing or gunsmithing for 3 days
• Bruise spreading between the knuckles like spilled ink

Recovery 3 days rested and wrapped, 5 with the swelling fighting you.·Doctor advised

Through the heel of the hand where the flesh is thickest, the ball misses everything that matters and leaves a channel you could whistle through. It bleeds like sin and aches like a hammer blow, but the fingers all answer when called.

• Cannot bear weight on the palm for 3 days, no vaulting fences, no pushing up from the ground
• Firm handshakes will fold you; grip fine for reins, poor for hauling
• Bruise spreading up the wrist by the second day

Recovery 3 days wrapped, 5 untended and tender.·Doctor advised

The ball takes you at an angle, burrows under the skin across the back of your hand, and exits at the wrist without ever going deep. The tendons roll under it like fence wire under a plow, bruised, furious, but unbroken.

• A raised, angry tunnel across the back of the hand; the skin over it goes black for days
• Fingers lift stiff and slow for 2-3 days; writing and dealing look drunk
• A long double-scarred line from knuckles to wrist

Recovery 2-3 days with a dressing, 4-5 on its own.·Doctor advised

Through the blade of the hand, the outer edge below the little finger, a tidy in-and-out that a doctor plugs and wraps in ten minutes. Chopping motions are done for a spell, but a pistol still sits in that palm well enough.

• Edge of the hand useless for 2-3 days, no chopping, hammer-fisting or bracing a long gun on it
• Grip aches by evening; shake it out and carry on
• /me shakes out the bandaged hand after every chore, hissing softly

Recovery 2-3 days wrapped, 4 if left to sort itself.·Doctor advised

The ball punches through the loose web of skin between your thumb and forefinger and sails on. A hole you can see daylight through, but nothing behind it, whiskey on it, a strip of clean linen, and back to work.

• Sore web pinches every time you cock a hammer for 2 days
• Small matching scars in the web, a gambler's badge if ever there was one
• Bleeds again if you grip too wide around a rifle stock

Recovery 2 days wrapped, 3 on its own, the web forgives fast.·No doctor needed

The ball skips across the tops of your knuckles, splitting the skin over two of them and moving on. Looks like you lost a fight with a cheese grater, works like a hand that got off easy.

• Scabbed knuckles crack and weep every time you make a fist for 2 days
• Fine work stings, expect blood spots on the cards

Recovery 2 days, doctor or no, just keep it clean.·No doctor needed

The ball plows a shallow groove across your open palm, more burn than hole, in one side and out the other through skin alone. It weeps and stings under the bandage like a rope burn's mean cousin.

• Palm stings against reins, rope and gun grips for 1-2 days
• Wear the bandage or leave blood prints on everything you touch

Recovery 2 days bandaged, 3 if you keep tearing it open.·No doctor needed

The ball clips the outside of your little finger, splitting the skin to the bone's ceiling but breaking nothing. One splinted finger sticking out like you're at a duchess's tea party, and that's the whole butcher's bill.

• Little finger splinted straight for 1-2 days and comically in the way
• Handshakes and gloves are an ordeal; everything else works
• /me raises the cup with one bandaged pinky rigid in the air, daring anyone to laugh

Recovery 1-2 days splinted, 3 unsplinted and knocked on every doorframe.·No doctor needed

The ball passes through your glove and the pinched fold of skin at the side of your palm, a through-and-through of nothing that matters. Two holes in the leather, one shallow sting in you, and a story that gets better every telling.

• A raw pinch-mark on the palm's edge, tender for a day
• A ruined glove worth showing around the saloon, both holes line up

Recovery A day, if that, whiskey on it and forget it.·No doctor needed

You had your hand up and open, and the ball threads the gap between your first two fingers, scorching a red line down each side as it goes. It never breaks skin deeper than a sunburn.

• Matching powder-red burn lines inside two fingers, tender for a day
• Those fingers keep pulling apart from each other for a few hours, like they remember

Recovery A day of stinging, then nothing but the story.·No doctor needed

The ball meant for your palm slams into the deck of cards you were holding and stops in it, fanning shredded pips across the table. You open your hand: unmarked, save for the sting of the blow. The ace of spades has a lead heart now, and it lives in your hatband.

• Palm bruised deep by the impact, it buzzes for a few hours
• A ruined deck with a pistol ball seated in it, the finest conversation piece in the county
• /me flips the lead-cored ace of spades across their knuckles, grinning

Recovery The bruise fades by morning; the legend doesn't.·No doctor needed