MetroHealth Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency

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MetroHealth Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency

• BALLISTICS
• Craig Sluiter
• Axiom Investigative Services
• September 12, 2006

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BALLISTICS - An Overview

• Definitions
• Bullet styles
• Accidents Happen
• Characteristics of pistol bullets
• Hands on and in-depth info on types
• Perspective
• Reading and Resources on ballistics
• Q and A

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GLOSSARY

• Ballistics1 a the science of the motion of
  projectiles (as bullets) in flight b the flight
  characteristics of a projectile (as a bullet)2
  the study of the processes within a firearm as it
  is fired
• Muzzle velocity- the speed of a projectile,
  usually expressed in feet or meters per second,
  as it leaves the muzzle of a gun
• Projectile- an object fired from a gun with an
  explosive propelling charge, such as a bullet
  shell, rocket, or grenade.
• -a body projected or impelled forward, as
  through the air

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GLOSSARY-cont

• Trajectory- The path of a projectile or other
  moving body through space.
• Fragmentation- The scattering of the fragments of
  an exploding bomb or other projectile
• Revolver- a handgun having a revolving chambered
  cylinder for holding a number of cartridges,
  which may be discharged in succession without
  reloading

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GLOSSARY-cont

• Semiautomatic firearm -Partially automatic.
• Ejecting a shell and loading the next round of
  ammunition automatically, but requiring a squeeze
  of the trigger for each shot
• Automatic firearm -a firearm that reloads itself
  and keeps firing until the trigger is released

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GLOSSARY-cont

• Hollow point bullet -A hollow point bullet is a
  bullet that has a pit, or hollowed out shape, in
  its tip, generally intended to cause the bullet
  to expand upon entering a soft target. A
  hollow-cavity bullet is an extreme variant of a
  hollow point bullet. In a hollow-cavity bullet,
  the hollow dominates the volume of the bullet and
  causes drastic expansion or even outright
  disintegration on impact

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GLOSSARY-cont

• Wadcutter -A wadcutter is a bullet specially
  designed for shooting paper targets, usually at
  close range and with significantly subsonic
  velocities under 800 ft/s (244 m/s) such as are
  found in handgun and airgun competitions. A
  wadcutter has a flat or nearly flat front, which
  acts to cut a very clean hole through the target,
  making it easier to score and hopefully reducing
  errors in scoring to the favor of the shooter.
  Since the flat nosed bullet is not well suited
  for feeding out of a firearm's magazine,
  wadcutters are normally used in revolvers or
  specially designed semi-automatic pistols.

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GLOSSARY-cont

• Parabellum -The name Parabellum is derived from
  the Latin Si vis pacem, para bellum ("If you
  seek peace, prepare for war"), It has become the
  most widespread pistol cartridge in the world. It
  also is widely used in a variety of
  pistol-caliber carbines by civilians, and has
  been the dominant submachine gun cartridge since
  World War II.

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Pistol and Revolver Bullets

• Pistol and revolver bullets are of several kinds.
  They may be of homogeneous heavy metal (usually
  lead or lead alloy) they may be coated with a
  thin layer of copper or other metal and they may
  be wholly or partially jacketed
• Pistol bullets are often round-nosed but may also
  be flat (wadcutter or semi-wadcutter) or concave
  (hollow-point).

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Pistol and Revolver Bullets

• Frangible bullets are made of small pieces of
  iron compressed together and designed to break
  apart on impact. Duplex or tandem bullets consist
  of two bullets, fired from the same cartridge. A
  bullet known as the Super Vel. is designed so
  that the soft lead core separates from the jacket
  on impact, and the KTW bullet is Teflon-coated
  and has a tungsten core, designed to penetrate
  cars.  In general, lead hollow-point bullet,
  jacketed hollow-point and semi-wadcutter bullets
  have a substantially greater wounding effect
  (i.e., they create a larger temporary cavity)
  than lead round-nosed bullets. Fully jacketed
  bullets, as used in military service, cause the
  smallest temporary cavities. The difference in
  wounding power arises from the fact that, apart
  from the fully jacketed bullets, all the bullets
  are capable of deforming on impact
• "all handgun bullets studied pose a serious
  hazard to bystanders".

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Hollow Point Bullets

• Modern hollow point bullet designs use many
  different methods to provide controlled
  expansion, including
• Jackets that are thinner near the front than the
  rear to allow easy expansion at the beginning,
  then a reduced expansion rate
• Partitions in the middle of the bullet core to
  stop expansion at a given point

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Hollow Point Bullets - cont

• Bonding the lead core to the copper jacket to
  prevent separation
• Fluted or otherwise weakened jackets to encourage
  expansion or fragmentation
• Posts in the hollow, to prevent clogging of the
  cavity with materials that may prevent expansion,
  such as hair and cloth

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Hollow Point Bullets - cont

• Solid copper hollow points, which are far
  stronger than jacketed lead, and provide very
  limited expansion even at high velocities
• Plastic inserts in the hollow, which provide the
  same profile as a full metal jacketed round, but
  crush on impact to expose the hollows
• Hollow point bullets are one of the most common
  types of civilian and police ammunition, due
  largely to the reduced risk of bystanders being
  hit by over-penetrating or ricocheted bullets,
  and the increased speed of incapacitation

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How it Works

• When the bullet strikes a soft target the
  pressure created in the pit forces the lead
  around it to expand greatly into a
  mushroom-shape. The greater surface area limits
  penetration into the target, and causes more
  tissue damage along the wound path. Many hollow
  point bullets, especially those intended for use
  at high velocity, are partially jacketed, that
  is, a portion of the lead bullet wrapped in a
  copper casing. This jacket provides additional
  strength to the bullet, and can help prevent the
  bullet from leaving deposits of metal inside the
  bore. In controlled expansion bullets, the jacket
  helps to prevent the bullet from breaking apart
  a fragmented bullet will generally not penetrate
  to the desired minimum depth.

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6.5 x 55 mm Swede before and after expanding. The
long base small expanded diameter show this is
a bullet designed for deep penetration on large
game. The bullet in the photo traveled more than
halfway through a moose
EXAMPLES

• 357 Magnum rounds. Left Jacketed, Soft Point
  (JSP) bullet. Right Jacketed, Hollow Point (JHP)
  bullet.

A fired 38 spl hollow point bullet viewed from
the side, showing the intended terminal
ballistics sometimes referred to as mushrooming.
This image was taken using a digital camera
attached to a stereo microscope at 10x
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Ballistic Characteristics of Handgun Rounds
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• .22LR ammo
•    .22LR ammunition is very popular and in
  widespread use in sport target shooting. This
  ammunition was designed for shooting practice,
  but not for personal defense purposes. Stopping
  power of a .22LR bullet is poor, and .22LR
  ammunition is not suitable for self defense. But
  a gun with .22LR is better than empty hands.

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• 9MM9x19 Luger (Parabellum) ammo
•    9x19 Luger (Parabellum) - Standard ammunition
  for modern military 9 mm semi-automatic pistols
  and sub-machine-guns. It provides high kinetic
  energy, high versatility, high stopping power.
  Perfectly suitable for self defense.

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• .38 Special ammo
• Classic police revolver ammunition, .38 Special
  cartridges provide shooters with relatively high
  firepower. Quite sufficient for personal defense.

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• .357 Magnum ammo
•  Very powerful ammunition, .357 Magnum ammo
  gives immensely high stopping power that's not
  typical for 9 mm ammunition. Excellent choice for
  self defense.

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• .45 ACP ammo
•    Some people don't trust 9 mm ammunition - they
  say that larger .45 (11.43 mm) caliber is more
  reliable in case of stopping power. Undoubtedly,
  .45 ACP ammunition provides very high stopping
  power, but owing to considerably lower velocity
  of .45 ACP bullet in comparison with .357 Magnum
  bullet, the energy of a .45 bullet is lower than
  that of a .357 Magnum bullet.

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• .41 Magnum ammo
•    The firepower of .41 Magnum ammunition is
  extremely high. It's what you might not expect
  from handgun if you're not familiar with Magnum
  calibers. This kind of ammunition is suitable for
  hunting the stopping power provided is much
  higher than you usually need for self defense.

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Suggested Reading

• Fackler, Martin L., M.D. "The 'Strasbourg
  Tests' Another Gunwriter/Bullet Salesman
  Fraud?"  Wound Ballistics Review, 1(4) 10-11
  1994.
• MacPherson, Duncan "Bullet Penetration --
  Modeling the Dynamics and the Incapacitation
  Resulting from Wound Trauma." Ballistic
  Publications, El Segundo, California. 1994
• Fackler, Martin L., M.D. "FBI 1993 Wound
  Ballistics Seminar Efficacy of Heavier Bullets
  Affirmed."  Wound Ballistics Review, 1(4) 8-9
  1994.

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Wound Ballistics Articles

• Patrick, Urey W.Handgun Wounding Factors and
  Effectiveness."  U.S. Department of Justice,
  Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1989.
• Roberts, Gary K. Wolberg, Eugene J. "Book
  Review, Handgun Stopping Power The Definitive
  Study."  Association of Firearm and Toolmark
  Examiners Journal, 24(4) 383-387 1992.
• Fackler, Martin L., MD. "Book Review, Street
  Stoppers The Latest Handgun Stopping Power
  Street Results."  Wound Ballistics Review, 3(1)
  26-31 1997.
• MacPherson, Duncan Sanow Strikes (Out) Again."
   Wound Ballistics Review, 3(1) 32-35 1997.
• van Maanen, Maarten "Discrepancies in the
  Marshall Sanow 'Data Base' An Evaluation Over
  Time." Wound Ballistics Review, 4(2) 9-13 Fall,
  1999.
• Fackler, Martin L., MD. "Undeniable Evidence."
  Wound Ballistics Review, 4(2) 14-15 Fall, 1999.
• MacPherson, Duncan "The Marshall Sanow 'Data'
  - Statistical Analysis Tells the Ugly Story."
  Wound Ballistics Review, 4(2) 16-21 Fall, 1999.
• Dodson, Shawn "Reality of the Street? A
  Practical Analysis of Offender Gunshot Wound
  Reaction for Law Enforcement." Tactical Briefs,
  4(2) April 2001

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Resource Page

• Several years ago when we first became acquainted
  with Dr. Martin L. Fackler, M.D., he was a
  Colonel in the US Army Medical Corps researching
  wound ballistics at Letterman Army Institute of
  Research, Presidio of San Francisco, California.
  Dr. Fackler kindly provided us several articles
  hed written, co-written or suggested we read
  that cover a wide spectrum of wound ballistics.
  Were listing some of these articles below for
  the benefit of those of you (especially medical
  students and researchers) who are truly
  interested in learning as much as you can about
  wound ballistics. Many of these articles can be
  located in the libraries and medical libraries of
  large universities.
• "Wounding Effects of the AK-47 Rifle Used by
  Patrick Purdy in the Stockton, California
  Schoolyard Shooting of January 17, 1989." Martin
  L. Fackler, M.D., John A. Malinowski, B.S.,
  Stephen W. Hoxie, B.S., and Alexander Jason,
  B.A., The American Journal of Forensic Medicine
  and Pathology, 11(3) 185-189, 1990.
• "Wounding Patterns of Military Rifle Bullets."
  Martin L. Fackler, International Defense Review,
  59-64, 1/1989.
• "Emergency War Surgery, Chapter II Missile Caused
  Wounds." Thomas E. Bowen, M.D. and Ronald F.
  Bellamy, M.D., The Emergency War Surgery NATO
  Handbook (Second United States Revision), USDoD,
  13-34.
• "Emergency War Surgery, Chapter XVI Wounds and
  Injuries of the Soft Tissues." Thomas E. Bowen,
  M.D. and Ronald F. Bellamy, M.D., The Emergency
  War Surgery NATO Handbook (Second United States
  Revision), USDoD, 230-238.

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Q and A

• Thank you for your time and attention