Low Tech cannons mortars and shells

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Varyon

While it's true that they are jagged and cut and tear rather than crush their way through soft tissue like a bullet, they are also typically rather small and, by my understanding, tend to wound and kill by penetrating into flesh and disrupting organs (and causing bleeding) rather than slicing bits off.

I think it depends on which fragments: my understanding is that as others have said, simple cast-iron shells tend to produce a few big fragments which can slice things off, whereas balls from a Napoleonic shrapnel round or splinters from a modern shell are more bullet-like or arrow-like.