AFTE Store - The Identification of Fired Bullets Having Bearing Surfaces with General Contour Variations but Minimal Fine Striae

The author received a 7.62mm caliber Russian Nagant M1895 revolver for function testing and comparison to a series of questioned bullets that had been submitted to the laboratory in a homicide case. The questioned bullets had very poor quality rifling impressions that were devoid of nearly all fine striae. The bore of the submitted revolver contained an extremely large amount of lead fouling and produced markings on test-fired bullets having the same general appearance as the questioned bullets. Despite the minimal amount of fine striae on the questioned and test-fired bullets, the author was able to identify the questioned bullets as having been fired in the revolver based on the overall agreement that existed between the contour variations and axial engravings on the compared bullets and silicone casts from the revolver’s bore.