Paige Jonathan, Walker Robert S, Buchanan Briggs, Key Alastair, Romans Jay, Eren Metin I
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA.
Forensic Sci Res. 2025 May 22;10(3):owaf010. doi: 10.1093/fsr/owaf010. eCollection 2025 Sep.
Bullet ricochets often leave impact sites that can be useful for shooting incident reconstruction. Here, we assess the proposal that these sites can potentially provide information about the design and composition of the projectile and possibly the corresponding firearm. We produced impact sites in concrete from five bullet types fired at two distances, for a total of 10 experimental conditions. Then, using elliptical Fourier analysis, we assessed the 297 bullet ricochet impact sites' plan-view outline shapes. Of the different bullet types, the 45 calibre Hollow Points exhibited the greatest variability in ricochet impact site shape, and the greatest potential for diagnosis. Overall, statistical assessment of robust sample sizes of ricochet impact sites suggests that there is too much overlap between different bullets' ricochet sites' plan-view form for confident identification of bullet design and composition, much less identification of the firearm from which it originated. We conclude with an extended discussion about future experiments involving bullet ricochet impact sites, including the employment of "paradigmatic classification", which can both organise the testing of experimental variables as well as illustrate the tremendous amount of experimental work that still needs to be conducted before researchers or firearm examiners draw firm conclusions. Key PointsBullet ricochet impact sites often occur in shooting incidents.We analysed bullet richochet impact site shapes in concrete using elliptical Fourier analysis.Results suggest different bullet types' ricochet impact shape morphospaces overlap with each other.This overlap obscures conclusions about the design and composition of the projectile and possibly the responsible firearm.
子弹跳弹通常会留下撞击点，这些撞击点可用于枪击事件的重建。在此，我们评估了这样一种观点，即这些撞击点有可能提供有关射弹设计和成分以及可能的相应枪支的信息。我们在混凝土中制造了由五种子弹类型在两个距离发射产生的撞击点，总共10种实验条件。然后，我们使用椭圆傅里叶分析评估了297个子弹跳弹撞击点的平面图轮廓形状。在不同的子弹类型中，.45口径空心弹在跳弹撞击点形状上表现出最大的变异性，以及最大的诊断潜力。总体而言，对跳弹撞击点的大量样本进行统计评估表明，不同子弹的跳弹点平面图形状之间存在太多重叠，无法可靠地识别子弹设计和成分，更无法识别其发射枪支。我们最后进行了深入讨论，内容涉及未来有关子弹跳弹撞击点的实验，包括采用“范式分类”，这既可以组织实验变量的测试，也可以说明在研究人员或枪支检验人员得出确凿结论之前仍需开展的大量实验工作。要点子弹跳弹撞击点经常出现在枪击事件中。我们使用椭圆傅里叶分析分析了混凝土中的子弹跳弹撞击点形状。结果表明不同子弹类型的跳弹撞击形状形态空间相互重叠。这种重叠模糊了关于射弹设计和成分以及可能的责任枪支的结论。
