Ballistic Identification

Northmen

Northmen

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I am watching a crime tv show. The forensics team in the series said the victim was killed by a silenced glock. Is that made up or is it really possible to know the brand of firearm?
 
Northmen said:
I am watching a crime tv show. The forensics team in the series said the victim was killed by a silenced glock. Is that made up or is it really possible to know the brand of firearm?
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From a bullet? Doubt it. Would know twist rate and caliber.

Not brand, or if it was suppressed.
 
Glock bullet can be identified because Glocks have hexagonal rifling, at least I know my G17 has hex.

I know there are many silencer designs and I have seen a design which used washers/discs inside the suppressor tube and these discs do not touch the bullet.

However, I have also seen a design that used some kind of steel wool as a sound dampener that may have steel fibers touch the bullet on its way through the silencer. This type of design may leave a telltale.
 
easyrider604 said:
Glock bullet can be identified because Glocks have hexagonal rifling, at least I know my G17 has hex.

I know there are many silencer designs and I have seen a design which used washers/discs inside the suppressor tube and these discs do not touch the bullet.

However, I have also seen a design that used some kind of steel wool as a sound dampener that may have steel fibers touch the bullet on its way through the silencer. This type of design may leave a telltale.
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Yeah but not just glocks use that rifling... so I guess they could narrow it down to a few manufacturers, but I still doubt a specific gun.

I really doubt they could know a supressor was used.
 
I assume they could determine it was probably a Glock. I doubt the suppressor bit.

It is called poetic license.

I am reading some books by Forsyth. He is clearly very ignorant about guns and I wonder why the editors don't clean up the errors, ot have a gun person read and correct his text.

In one book the buckshot was steel balls. And Glock was a Swiss gun. n And the Colt SAA 45 had a heavy trigger, and a safety.

I don't mind poetic license, but ignorance bothers me.
 
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There are ways that you can spot some silencers - particularly older designs using end wipes, and the polygonal rifling of a Glock is going to be slightly different than that of other manufacturers at the microscopic level (different internal finishes leaving different residues, different barrel making techniques leaving different marks), but it's highly unlikely, and generally irrelevant to be that specific. Shot by a 9mm is probably close enough.
 
The lack of noise is often a clue. Or wire pulling gel on the victim. And the ejected Glock mags all over the floor. And the soda bottle/duct tape. Or the silenced Glock recovered later on.
 
Just as there are different styles of conventional rifling, there are also different styles and dimensions for polygonal rifling. I would venture to say that HK, Glock and the other polygonally rifled barrels have easily identifiable riflings, not necessarily having to go up to electron microscope magnification.

For the common tv-watcher, firearms terms are as foreign as medical terms to non-medical practicioners, and that makes the show interesting as long as we know that CSI is just entertainment and will not prepare the viewer for a career in forensics.

On silencer design, Enefgee mentioned end wipes. I have seen a silencer, 35-some yrs ago in another life, for a 22LR pistol with a piece of rubber tire interior tube at the muzzle end, with a hole much smaller than .22 diameter. It was a very effective silencer. I am sure that rubber will leave a trace on the bullet.
 


here is a case(left) fired by a VZ26 MG used by the SS near leningrad. beside it is a normal SS mauser fired case. see the difference?
 
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