AFTE Store - The Exterior and Terminal Ballistics of OO Buckshot

The use of 00 buckshot in hunting and law enforcement as well as its occasional use in criminal enterprises gives rise to a number of interesting exterior and terminal ballistic questions not readily obtained from textbooks or journals. While relatively close range determinations derived from pattern testing are common and well known, the exterior and terminal ballistics of the individual pellets can be of interest insofar as questions regarding lethality and injury-producing capabilities at ranges on the order of 50 yards and more. Two techniques (Doppler radar and the Oehler M43 PBL system) were used to study the exterior ballistic performance of standard .33 caliber 00 buckshot. The effects of variations in the surface texture and topography of individual buckshot pellets were also studied and found to only have a small effect on exterior ballistic performance. The two techniques gave comparable results for the exterior ballistic performance of buckshot pellets of the same weight and surface texture and allowed a useful ballistic coefficient to be derived for 00 buckshot pellets. This value is useful in future casework for estimating down range velocities of fired buckshot pellets and in evaluating the potential for injury by these projectiles at relatively long ranges. Standard 10%w/w ordnance gelatin at 40C with and without a skin simulant was used to study the wound ballistic aspects of these soft lead spheres at selected impact velocities. The plot of penetration vs. impact velocity was prepared from this work is useful in estimating range of fire for soft tissue gunshot wounds produced by distant fire of 00 buckshot pellets.