[Jeff Higgins]

One of my cousins, a Seattle cop working undercover at the time, once shot a guy in the forehead with his .38 Special snubby. It was in a bar, and he happened to walk in right in the middle of a big fracas. The guy came after him with a very large knife, ignored orders to drop it, and continued to advance. When he fired, it looked for all the world to everyone present that he had scattered the guy's brains all over the bar; blood and crud just exploded off the back of his head, and he fell lifelessly to the floor.

Then he got back up. Really upset this time. Before my cousin could raise his revolver to shoot again, the bartender hollered "duck", and a Louisville Slugger came whistling over cuz's head and shattered the guy's face. That put him down for good.

Turns out the .38 had penetrated the skin but not the skull. The skin held it to the skull until it made it around to the back, where it ripped back out through the skin. The baseball bat had left a far more lasting impression than that peewee .38. Cousin Chuck went to a 1911 .45 and never looked back. Sounds like Smokey might want to do the same.