Shoulder: Revolver: Straight Through

The ball ducked under the collarbone and tore out through the back of the joint, taking the socket's rim with it. The doctor probes both holes, goes quiet, and pours the whiskey for you instead of the wound.

• Arm strapped tight to your chest in a sling, no use of it at all for 7 days
• Any jolt to the shoulder whites your vision out with pain
• /me cradles the strapped arm against their ribs, sweat standing on their brow
• Doctors warn the joint may freeze, the arm might never raise a rifle again

Recovery 7 days strapped down under a doctor's daily care before the joint's fate is known, there is no toughing this out.·Doctor, urgently

In was a neat blue hole; out is a ragged tear the size of a silver dollar where the soft lead spread its elbows. The exit takes eight silk stitches and packing soaked in carbolic.

• Arm in a sling 5 days, no shooting, roping or lifting with that side
• Bleeds through the dressing if you raise the elbow above your ribs

Recovery 5 days with a doctor's stitching and daily packing, 10 and a knotted scar if you tough it out.·Doctor, urgently

The ball clipped the collarbone on its way through and left a crack you can feel grind when you shrug. Figure-eight bandage around both shoulders, arm bound to your side.

• Shoulders braced back in a figure-eight wrap for 6 days, no reaching overhead, no reins in that hand
• A grinding click in the collarbone every time you forget and shrug
• Sleeping flat is agony, you doze sitting up against a wall

Recovery 6 days braced with a doctor's care, 12 crooked-healing days without.·Doctor required

The ball dragged a plug of shirt wool and burnt powder clean through the channel. The doctor draws the threads out of both holes with forceps, one by one, and each thread comes with a hiss out of you.

• Channel flushed with carbolic twice daily for 5 days, you smell like a hospital ward
• Low fever by the second night: sweats, shakes and no appetite

Recovery 5 days if the doctor gets every thread, 9 feverish ones if any wool stays to fester.·Doctor required

Clean through the meat, but both holes ran like taps before anyone got a thumb on them. You come to on the floor with your boots up on a chair and a taste like old pennies.

• Lightheaded when you stand for 3 days, sit down before you fall down
• Sling on the arm 4 days, no heavy work with either hand while your blood rebuilds
• Pale as a bar rag, cold hands, beef broth and liver pressed on you at every meal

Recovery 4 days with a doctor and red meat, 7 gray-faced days without.·Doctor required

Straight through the deltoid without touching bone, but both wounds want packing so they heal from the bottom up. Twice a day someone draws a yard of carbolic gauze out of your shoulder and feeds a fresh one in.

• Arm slung 4 days, no shooting or roping on that side
• Dressing changes twice daily that hurt worse than the shot did
• /me grips the table edge white-knuckled as the packing is drawn out

Recovery 4 days with a doctor packing it proper, 8 if you let it scab shut and abscess.·Doctor required

The ball passed a hair's width from the nerve bundle and the whole arm went to sleep on you. Feeling crawls back in pins and needles, but the grip stays weak as a child's for days.

• Grip on that side too weak to cock a hammer or hold a rope for 4 days
• Pins and needles from shoulder to fingertips, worse at night
• Drops small things without noticing, cards, coins, cigarettes

Recovery 4 days for full feeling with rest and a doctor's say-so, 6 if you keep working the arm.·Doctor required

The channel was plugged and stitched, but by the second dawn the edges have gone red and angry and the wound weeps. Whiskey wash, carbolic, and someone checking your brow every hour.

• Fevered 3 days: sweats, shakes and a temper on a short fuse
• Arm slung and the wound washed twice daily, no dust, no river water, no work
• /me presses the back of a hand to their own forehead and grimaces

Recovery 3 hot days with a doctor's carbolic, 6 dangerous ones without, gangrene is a real conversation.·Doctor required

The storybook wound: in the front of the shoulder meat, out the back, missed bone and cord entirely. It still burns like a branding iron someone left in you.

• Arm in a sling 3 days, no rifle to the shoulder, no throwing a rope
• Both holes bandaged and pulling at every reach

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's stitches, 5 if you just whiskey it and wrap it.·Doctor advised

The ball tunneled through the outer shoulder muscle and left a channel that burns like a poker was drawn through you. Two neat dressings and a foul temper.

• No lifting anything heavier than a coffee pot with that arm for 3 days
• A deep bone-ache when the evening cools
• /me rolls the shoulder slow and sucks air through their teeth

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's care, 5 stiff ones if you tough it out.·Doctor advised

Clean passage through the meat below the collarbone. Four stitches in the front, six in the back, and a sling knotted behind your neck that everyone will ask about.

• Sling for 3 days, stitches out around day 5, no shooting from that shoulder till then
• Stitches pull every time you reach across your body

Recovery 3 days slung with a doctor's needlework, 6 without and the scars pucker.·Doctor advised

Through and through the muscle, and by morning the whole shoulder has seized like a rusted gate. Nothing broken, it just refuses to answer.

• Cannot raise the arm above shoulder height for 3 days
• Getting a coat on takes help or five cussing minutes
• /me works the arm into a coat sleeve an inch at a time

Recovery 3 days of hot compresses with a doctor's advice, 5 creaking ones without.·Doctor advised

Two holes, no lies: the ball went through the shoulder's edge without touching anything it couldn't spare. Bloody shirt, honest wound, a story worth one free drink.

• Shoulder bandaged and slung 2 days, tender for a week
• Bleeds a little fresh if you take the sling off early to show off

Recovery 2 days with a doctor's wash and wrap, 4 if you tough it out.·Doctor advised

Through the outer roll of shoulder muscle, in and out quick as a needle. It hurt more to hear the shot than to take it, until an hour later, when it caught fire.

• Dull burn for 2 days, arm favored but working
• Two coin-sized dressings taped front and back

Recovery 2 days with a proper cleaning, 3 if you just pour whiskey through it.·Doctor advised

The ball took the shallow road under the skin of your shoulder and left before it got comfortable. More tunnel than wound, and it bled less than a bar fight.

• Tender ridge under the skin you can trace with a finger for 2 days
• /me presses two fingers along the raised line under their shirt

Recovery 2 days either way, wash it, wrap it, forget it.·No doctor needed

In the front, out the back, both holes small and clean as a leather punch made them. You plug them with your own kerchief and finish your coffee.

• Shoulder stiff for a day and change, shooting is doable, just slower
• A matched pair of small scars in the making, front and back

Recovery A day or two either way; a doctor would only charge you for the compliment.·No doctor needed

The ball caught the last inch of shoulder meat on its way somewhere else. A furrow with two mouths, shallow enough to see daylight through if you're morbid about it.

• Stings under a shirt seam for a day or so
• Bled just enough to look heroic

Recovery A day, maybe two if you keep picking at the wrap.·No doctor needed

Your heavy coat and the shirt beneath drank most of the ball's manners before it passed through the skin over your shoulder. Two shallow nicks and a coat that needs a tailor more than you need a doctor.

• Barely a sting by suppertime
• A ruined coat shoulder and a ball-sized hole to explain

Recovery A day, if that, the coat is the real casualty.·No doctor needed

Through the pinch of skin at the top of your shoulder, missing meat, bone and everything that matters. Any flatter and it would have been a haircut.

• A sting when your suspender strap sits on it
• Two small scabs you will catch yourself grinning about

Recovery A day either way; the story lasts longer than the wound.·No doctor needed

The doctor traces the path twice and swears in Latin: the ball slid clean between muscle and bone, under the collarbone, past the artery and the nerve bundle, and out without so much as bruising them. Two dimples and a drink named after you.

• Sore like a hard punch for a few hours, nothing more
• Two neat dimple scars that doctors will ask to look at
• /me shrugs the shoulder easy and lets the saloon see it working

Recovery By tomorrow you'll only feel it when it rains, and it won't even do that.·No doctor needed