An empirical study on the close-range post-ricochet orientation of AK bullets (7.62 mm × 39 mm)

No Thumbnail Available

Date

2022

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Science & Justice

Abstract

Most of the injuries and deaths from ricocheting bullets in shooting incidents are usually reported due to misaimed shots that had ricocheted close to the victims. Although the destabilisation of ricocheted bullets during their ricochet flights is a generally known phenomenon, no significant quantitative-based scientific studies have attempted to understand bullets’ post-ricochet orientations at close distances. This empirical study explores close-range post-ricochet orientations of AK bullets (7.62 mm × 39 mm) on a range of domestic surface types typically encountered during bullet ricochet incidents. This study has revealed that ricocheting AK bullets off of various wood types and tile samples produce side-on impacts into closely located targets following a rightwards yaw action. It has also been shown that AK bullets ricocheting off concrete and cement samples at 5-degree incident angles produced nose-forward impacts on paper witness screens, similar to an orthogonal impact of a direct-fired shot. The findings present important new information on the post-ricochet yawing behaviour of AK bullets, which has the potential to aid future shooting reconstructions in which victims are hit by closely ricocheted bullets.

Description

Keywords

Post-ricochet behavior of bullets Post-ricochet analysis: AK bullets (7.62 mm x 39 mm) Ricochet analysis Shooting incident reconstruction

Citation

Nishshanka, B., Shepherd, C., Koene, L., Punyasena, M., & Ariyarathna, R. (2022, September). An empirical study on the close-range post-ricochet orientation of AK bullets (7.62 mm × 39 mm). Science & Justice, 62(5), 569–581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2022.08.004

Collections

Endorsement

Review

Supplemented By

Referenced By