Shoulder: Buckshot

Close enough to feel the powder's heat, the charge struck as one fist and left the shoulder a ragged ruin of meat, cloth and lead. The doctor works half the night by lamplight and will not say the word you are both thinking until morning.

• Shoulder packed and bound as one great wound; the arm strapped useless for 7 days
• Laudanum-deep sleep and fever sweats the first two nights
• /me surfaces from the laudanum asking the same question they asked an hour ago
• If the ruin sours, the bonesaw is the only medicine left

Recovery 7 days at death's neighbor under a doctor's roof before anyone talks about after.·Doctor, urgently

Inside ten yards the pattern never opened, it struck as a single ragged crater across the point of your shoulder, taking cloth, skin and the top of the muscle with it. The doctor trims the edges, picks pellets from the floor of it and packs it by the yard.

• Crater packed with carbolic gauze twice daily for 6 days
• Arm strapped down 6 days, the wound tears open at any reach
• A scar like a splash of wax across the shoulder cap, for life

Recovery 6 days of a doctor's packing, 12 and a far worse ruin of scar without.·Doctor, urgently

The heart of the pattern caught you square and drove three heavy pellets to the bone, one flattened against the collarbone like a rivet. The extraction runs long past midnight, the deepest coming loose only after the doctor braces an elbow on your chest.

• An hour and more on the table; the arm slung 6 days after
• A deep bone bruise along the collarbone, no coat sits right for a week
• /me flinches at each clink of a pellet dropping into the basin

Recovery 6 days with a doctor's care, 11 if the deep ones stay in to fester.·Doctor required

The doctor takes nine pellets out of your shoulder and stops counting the ones he cannot reach, three sit too deep, walled in against the blade. He stitches you closed over them and starts a fever watch he does not pretend to be casual about.

• A dozen small wounds dressed daily for 5 days
• Evening fever checks for 5 days, heat, red streaks or a swelling knot means he digs again
• Three pellets deep in the shoulder that will speak up in cold weather

Recovery 5 days under a doctor's watch, 10 gambling ones if you skip the fever checks.·Doctor required

A mid-range pattern: a dozen pellets and more through the shoulder and upper arm, none deep enough to kill and every one deep enough to hurt. You spend a long evening face down on the doctor's table while forceps hunt and the basin rings like a slow clock.

• A shoulder speckled with dressed holes for 4 days; sleeping on that side is off
• Arm stiff as a pump handle for 4 days, no rifle, no roping
• /me curses in a steady, conversational tone, one pellet at a time

Recovery 4 days with a doctor picking it clean, 8 septic ones if you leave lead sitting.·Doctor required

Most of the spread ran shallow, but two pellets drove in beside the shoulder joint where the probing hurts worse than the shot did. One comes out after a wrestle; the other the doctor leaves be, too close to the joint to chase.

• Shoulder slung 4 days; the probing site packed and dressed daily
• A deep catch beside the joint when the arm goes overhead, easing over 6 days
• One pellet staying on as a tenant, it will ache when it rains

Recovery 4 days with a doctor's dressing, 7 without.·Doctor required

Every pellet carried a plug of shirt wool in ahead of it, and wool kills slower but surer than lead. The doctor flushes each hole with carbolic and teases the threads out with fine forceps, and by the end you both hate your tailor.

• Each wound flushed and re-dressed daily for 4 days, you reek of carbolic
• Low fever the second night: sweats, shakes and no appetite

Recovery 4 days if every thread came out, 8 fevered ones if one stayed.·Doctor required

The pellets ran shallow but the shoulder answered all together, swelling into one hot, tight ham of a joint by the next morning. The doctor lances what needs lancing and orders the arm kept still until the heat goes down.

• Arm rested in a sling 4 days while the swelling falls
• Skin drawn shiny-tight over the shoulder, hot to the touch for 3 days
• /me holds a cool wet cloth to the shoulder, changing it when it warms

Recovery 4 days cooling under a doctor's eye, 7 if it hardens into an abscess.·Doctor required

The pattern had opened kindly by the time it reached you, a dozen pellets across the shoulder, none deeper than a thumbnail. An hour under the forceps, a rattle of lead in the basin, and you walk out patched like a mended quilt.

• Shoulder speckled with plasters for 3 days
• Stiff and stinging under a shirt for 3 days, no rifle butt to that side

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's picking, 5 doing it yourself with a mirror and tweezers.·Doctor advised

The edge of the spread raked the shoulder cap and left eight pellets under the skin along it, spaced even as buttons. The doctor works down the row in order and jokes about sewing you a second seam.

• A row of small dressed wounds along the shoulder for 3 days
• Raising the arm above shoulder height pulls every one of them
• /me rolls a sleeve back to show the neat row of plasters, half proud of it

Recovery 3 days with a doctor, 5 without.·Doctor advised

Half the pellets spent themselves on coat and muscle without breaking deep, what remains is a shoulder bruised black from cap to collarbone, with five pellets picked from the skin like seeds from a melon.

• A bruise from cap to collarbone, turning purple to yellow over 5 days
• Arm favored for 3 days; your coat weighs twice what it did

Recovery 3 sore days with a doctor's once-over, 5 without.·Doctor advised

The doctor picks out what he can and taps the two he cannot reach, small and settled and doing no harm where they sit. The old-timers at the saloon nod along: everybody who has lived a while carries a little weather lead.

• A handful of small wounds dressed for 3 days
• Two pellets staying under the skin, hard little peas you can roll with a thumb
• A dull ache in the shoulder before rain, your own barometer from here on

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's dressing, 4 without; the tenants never leave.·Doctor advised

You caught the ragged edge of the spread, five pellets in the meat of the shoulder and the rest singing past your ear into the wall. The picking is quick; the shaking afterward takes longer.

• Five plastered holes, tender for 3 days
• /me studies the pellet pattern in the wall, measuring where the rest went

Recovery 3 days either way once it's cleaned; the nerves take their own time.·Doctor advised

Long range and a kind wind: three pellets sit just under the skin of the shoulder, close enough to the surface to watch them shift. The doctor nicks each one out in under a minute apiece.

• Three small nicks plastered for 2 days
• A sting whenever the suspender strap crosses them

Recovery 2 days, treated or not.·Doctor advised

At thirty yards the pattern arrived tired, rattling against you like flung gravel. Two pellets stuck in the skin and squeeze out like ticks; the rest left dents in your coat and welts beneath it.

• Welts across the shoulder and upper arm, stinging for 2 days
• Two tiny scabs where the stuck pellets came out

Recovery 2 days; a cold cloth and a stiff drink cover the doctoring.·No doctor needed

A handful of pellets raked the top of the shoulder along the collar seam, cutting shallow and burning like a line of wasps. Washed, plastered and back to work by noon, walking a little stiff.

• A burning line along the collar for a day or two
• The shirt collar sits wrong on the plasters; you keep tugging at it

Recovery 2 days at the outside; soap and whiskey do it.·No doctor needed

The far fringe of the spread freckled your shoulder with a dozen stinging points, only two of them proud enough to bleed. It looks worse in the mirror than it feels in the arm.

• A speckling of red points across the shoulder, fading over 2 days
• It itches worse than it hurts by the second evening

Recovery A day or two; count them, wash them, forget them.·No doctor needed

Your heavy coat and the bedroll slung over that shoulder drank the whole charge, pellets hang in the wool like berries in a bush. One found skin, barely, and sits in the shallowest scratch of the day.

• One scratched welt, tender for a day
• An afternoon picking lead out of your coat instead of your hide

Recovery A day for you; the coat may never recover.·No doctor needed

You caught the last outer ring of the pattern, a single pellet in the meat of the shoulder and a sting like one furious bee. It rolls out of the wound when you press either side of it with your thumbs.

• One plastered nick, sore for a day
• A single pellet keepsake, small as a dried pea

Recovery A day, if you bother counting it.·No doctor needed

The wall behind you wears the whole pattern, a ragged halo of pellet holes printed around the shape of your shoulder and head, with one lone pellet that kissed the skin just hard enough to raise a welt before dropping into your collar. The barkeep pries it from the fold and sets it on the bar like a tip; nobody in the room says a word for a moment.

• A single welt on the shoulder, gone by morning
• The wall's pellet halo outlines you like a carnival knife act, drinks arrive unasked
• /me stands back against the wall, fitting their shoulder inside the pattern for the doubters

Recovery By morning even the welt is gone; the story never will be.·No doctor needed