2011
Lucien Haag
Chicago, IL
A number of former Soviet bloc small arms projectiles contain steel cores that can become separated from the host projectile during impacts with a variety of surfaces. These impacts may be ricochet events or the perforation of an intervening material. Following such impactive events, these steel cores can travel some considerable distance and even produce serious to fatal wounds. Upon recovery, these mild steel cores have the appearance of a bullet to unskilled crime scene investigators and forensic pathologists. This presentation will illustrate the physical properties of steel cores from 5.45x39mm, 7.62x39mm and 7.62x54R ammunition followed by Doppler radar trackings of such cores separated from their host projectiles. This data will provide the attendee with an understanding of how a bullet core can separate from a bullet, what it takes to accomplish this and reasonable assessments of the distances such separate cores can travel and still produce serious to fatal injuries.