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    Ballistic Basics
    Ballistic Basics
    Ballistic Basics
    Ebook165 pages2 hours

    Ballistic Basics

    By J. Gunnar Grey

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    So you're writing a contemporary or historical mystery, or a romantic suspense thriller, or an urban fantasy, and your hero's packing but you don't know beans about guns. And your heroine's a ballistics technician in the city's Anti-Lycan Policing Organization (ALPO) and she's going to make the positive ballistics identification on the silver bullet that took down the head of the Wolverine gang, but you've got the same problem there. And you don't want to depend on CSI Paranormal, because you don't trust them to get the details right, much less real.

    Tremble no more, because this primer's for you. In this compact, easy-to-understand guide, an experienced mystery writer and target shooter takes you step by step through the mysteries of firearms and the ballistics that track them. You'll learn the theory behind forensic ballistics, the timeline of firearms and forensics development dating back to the 10th century, the different categories of firearms, and what's involved in a ballistics examination. It's topped off with some examples of real-life historical crimes, showing how forensics technology advanced since 1912.

    But there's more here than boring old facts. How does it feel to grab a large-caliber pistol and fire it in self-defense for the first time? What can a criminal do to camouflage a murder weapon? And how can a detective track a weapon so camouflaged? Which is best for a long-range firefight, a rifle, pistol, or shotgun? For a close-in, darkened room? What can a determined beginning shooter do to improve her wrist strength?

    There's a lot involved in firearms and ballistics. But with this handy primer in your Kindle, you'll be armed and ready to write before you can say "submachine gun."

    Oh, and did I mention it's illustrated?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDingbat Publishing
    Release dateApr 30, 2013
    ISBN9781301743797
    Ballistic Basics

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      Book preview

      Ballistic Basics - J. Gunnar Grey

      Ballistic Basics

      A writer's primer on firearms and the forensics that track them

      by

      J. Gunnar Grey

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2012 by J. Gunnar Grey

      All rights reserved

      Dingbat Publishing

      Humble, Texas

      Ballistic Basics: A writer's primer on firearms and the forensics that track them

      Copyright © 2012 by J. Gunnar Grey

      ISBN 978-1475104707

      Cover design by Dingbat Publishing

      Cover photo: Close-up of an M9 semi-auto pistol, taken by Cpl. Kurt Fredrickson.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the express and prior written permission of the Publisher.

      This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It does not claim to be perfect. It is sold with the understanding that the sale does not engage the Publisher in any manner for the rendering of professional services to the buyer.

      Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.

      Foreword

      This book was designed to provide some basic information on firearms and ballistics for writers who might not have personal experience or who don't trust the television shows to get it right. However, the information may also be of interest to other readers as well as fans of true crime, especially those who like to delve into the history of it all.

      Ballistic Basics covers how a gun works and how those workings gave rise to forensic ballistics. It also includes a description of the various categories of civilian firearms, a timeline of firearm and ballistics development for historical writers, and what happens in a ballistic forensics lab. A few historical cases are discussed, showcasing the changes in criminal investigations and court cases as the science developed during the 20th century. Finally, there's a brief history of police departments and police casualties in the line of duty, written by a friend who prefers to remain kinda anonymous, Scotty.

      These sections don't need to be read in any particular order, and some of the arranging depended upon when an idea struck me rather than any form of logic. However, the first section, The theory behind forensic ballistics, which began as a post on my blog, Mysteries and Histories (the1940mysterywriter.com), can be considered a basic primer for writerly firearms, with everything that follows leading off from that point. Might be a good idea to start there.

      No basic primer on any subject can cover all its aspects, so allow me to apologize in advance for any omissions.

      Gunnar

      The theory behind forensic ballistics

      To understand the science of forensic ballistics, it helps to understand a) how a round of ammunition is constructed, b) how a gun barrel is manufactured, and c) how a gun works.

      a) The modern cartridge (another name for a round of ammunition) consists of a cylindrical tube with a sealed base, called a shell casing and usually made from brass, that's filled with gunpowder and plugged shut on the open end with a bullet.

      Figure 1

      Anatomy of a cartridge.

      Figure 2

      Fired centerfire casing.

      Figure 3

      Fired rimfire casing.

      The base includes a primary explosive charge (the primer), either rolled into the casing's edge (rimfire ammunition) or enclosed within a tiny metal cup called a percussion cap, which is then inserted into a little recess in the brass casing (centerfire). There's a flash hole between the primer and the gunpowder, so when one goes off, the other follows a millisecond later. Some bullets are made slightly larger than the barrel of the intended gun; some are made slightly smaller. (More on this in a bit.)

      b) Most gun barrels are manufactured from solid metal rods. Such a rod is first bored out and smoothed to a precise diameter, then it's rifled with a machine carving tool, etching a pattern of spiral grooves into the barrel's interior, with raised areas called lands between the grooves. Gun barrels can also be forged over mandrels containing a reverse image of the rifling desired by the manufacturer. This rifling forces the bullet to whirl or spin about an axis, stabilizing its flight and improving the shooter's ability to aim.

      Figure 4

      Rifling inside Remington .35 caliber barrel.

      Note that the tools used in the boring and rifling processes are worn down a bit by each successive rod that's transformed into a gun barrel. At the microscopic level, therefore, no two gun barrels are precisely the same — just like fingerprints. (And no, you can't say that about DNA, because identical twins have identical DNA. But their fingerprints will be slightly different, due to scars from paper cuts and such.)

      c) When a gun's trigger is pulled, the firing pin strikes the primer, setting off the explosive. This in turn ignites the gunpowder, which detonates in a controlled explosion, heats the bullet to a semi-liquid state, and hurls it through the barrel into flight. Bullets that are slightly smaller than the barrel flare out and enlarge to fill the space; those that are slightly larger are squeezed to fit. In both instances, the bullet's semi-liquid metal engages the rifling and is permanently marked by the interaction as it cools back to a solid form.

      For the gun to be fired a second time (or the chamber, in the case of a revolver), the now hot and empty brass casing must be removed. Some guns rely upon the explosion's gasses to propel the brass from the firing chamber, called the breech; others use an extractor mechanism, which may include an ejector, as well. Many revolvers with swing-out cylinders have a manual ejector system, where the shooter can push in a rod on the cylinder's front and force the casings from all the chambers at one time. Finally, many other revolvers require the shooter to remove the casings from the barrel and reload manually. While this method may seem simplistic, it has the undeniable benefit that there's less to potentially go wrong.

      This sequence of events gives the forensic ballistics expert two potential evidentiary items at the scene of a shooting: the bullet and the ejected brass casing. The bullet will carry striations from the barrel's rifling. The casing will be marked by the firing pin, any imperfections on the firing chamber's breech face, and the individual gun's ejector mechanism. These markings can first identify the type of weapon used in the shooting, and later confirm or disprove that a particular weapon fired the bullet in question.

      If a bullet strikes a hard surface (a brick wall, for example, or a bone), it can be smashed into a misshapen lump, destroying or altering the marks left by the barrel's rifling. Therefore the brass casing can be more valuable for identifying a murder weapon, particularly if the manufacturing process left small imperfections or tool marks on the gun's breech, firing mechanism, or ejector. For this reason, criminals often try to collect and carry off expended shell casings after committing a crime, or they fire the gun through a paper bag, which camouflages the gun until it's fired and hopefully contains the casings that would otherwise be hurled about. Of course, if the paper bag is blasted apart, he's back to picking up shell casings.

      Firearms and ballistics timeline

      9th century: Gunpowder was invented in China by alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality, which is ironic considering it's often used by murderers as an elixir of death.

      10th century: The first firearm was invented in China, too, as part of the ongoing defense against the encroaching Mongol hordes along the northern Chinese border. (They built the Great Wall of China for the same reason, starting around 50 BC and continuing for more than twelve centuries.) These early weapons were crude but generally effective, such as the fire-spear, a bamboo pipe filled with shrapnel and gunpowder, used as a sort of combination flamethrower and grenade launcher.

      Figure 5

      Tenth century Dunhuang fire-spear and grenade launcher.

      12th century: The Chinese proved under attack to be quick learners. Before the end of the century, they'd altered the gunpowder mix to turn it from a raw explosive to an explosive propellant. They'd also changed their shrapnel bits to solid cannonballs, and instead of mounting bamboo pipes on the ends of spears, they invented the metal barrel. Thus was created the first cannon, and the invention spread through the Middle East to Europe, ironically driven mainly by the Mongols after they overran China.

      14th century: Early artillery arrived in the Middle East, brought by invading Mongols. Those guys got around.

      14th century: Not long after, the first field artillery arrived in Europe. By the 1340s, the English army was equipped with ribauldequins, a sort of early organ gun, fielded by Edward III in France during the Hundred Years War. These ribauldis had multiple small barrels, usually nine to twelve of them, all bound together into one field piece. The barrels pointed either straight ahead as a group or spread out in a fan formation; drawings by Leonardo da Vinci show both patterns. All the barrels went off together, creating a true murdering-piece blast of lead against enemy pikemen, archers, and foot soldiers.

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