“God created men equal. Sam Colt made ’em equal.”

This article contains graphic images from real cases which may be disturbing to some viewers.
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Handguns are low-velocity, low-energy weapons having muzzle velocities generally below 1400 ft/sec. Advertised velocities of revolver cartridges traditionally have not been accurate because they are obtained in test devices that have no cylinder gap. Even in well-made revolvers, this gap will cause a velocity loss of approximately 100 to 200 ft/sec, depending on initial velocities and pressure as well as the construction tolerances of the weapon. Advertised velocities for semiautomatic pistols are more accurate as there is no cylinder gap from which gas can escape. The length of the barrel also influences muzzle velocity. The longer the barrel, the greater the velocity.

Advertised	Muzzle	Velocities	Versus	Actual	Velocities
Cartridge	Advertised Muzzle Velocity (ft/sec)	2-in. Barrel	4-in. Barrel	6-in. Barrel	Rifle
.22 Long rifle	1255	916	1034	1052	1237
.22 Short	1095	851	861	960	1005
.38 Special	855	687	722	765

Handgun wounds can be divided into four categories, depending on the distance from muzzle to target. These are: contact, near contact, intermediate, and distant. A contact wound is one in which the muzzle of the weapon is held against the body at the time of discharge. Contact wounds can be hard, loose, angled, or incomplete. In contact wounds gas, soot, metallic particles avulsed from the bullet by the rifling, vaporized metal from the bullet and cartridge case, primer residue, and powder particles are all driven into the wound track along with the bullet. In hard contact wounds, the muzzle of the weapon is held very tightly against the skin, indenting it so that the skin envelopes the muzzle at the time of discharge. All the materials emerging from the muzzle will be driven into the wound, often leaving very little external evidence that one is dealing with a contact wound. Inspection of the entrance, however, will usually disclose searing and powder blackening (soot) of the immediate edge of the wound. Hard contact wounds of the head from .22 Short or .32 Smith & Wesson Short cartridges are often difficult to interpret because of the small powder charge loaded into such cartridges. These wounds may appear to be distant because of an inability to detect the small amount of soot produced and to recover unburned powder grains in the wound track. Compounding this problem is the fact that in distant wounds from .22 Short and .32 S & W Short cartridges, drying of the edges can simulate the blackened and seared margins of hard contact wounds. In situations such as this, as well as in cases of decomposition of a body, examination of the wounds with the dissecting microscope for soot and powder grains is of value. Unfortunately, recognition of material as soot is to a certain degree subjective. Drying, hemolyzed blood, and decomposition can simulate or mask soot. Generally, blood can be removed by running or spraying hot water over the wound. Clots resistant to the hot water can be dissolved with hydrogen peroxide. Neither hot water nor hydrogen peroxide will remove the soot. In contact wounds, muscle surrounding the entrance may have a cherryred hue, due to carboxyhemoglobin and carboxymyoglobin formed from the carbon monoxide in the muzzle gas. Even if this discoloration is not present, elevated levels of carbon monoxide may be detected on chemical analysis. Control samples of muscle should always be taken from another area of the body if such determinations are to be made. It should be realized that, whereas elevated carbon monoxide levels in the muscle are significant, the lack of carbon monoxide is not, as carboxyhemoglobin formation does not always occur. By using gas chromatography, carbon monoxide has been detected in wounds inflicted up to 30 cm from the muzzle. The presence of both powder particles and carbon monoxide in a gunshot wound would seem to leave no doubt that one is dealing with an entrance wound. A perfect imprint of the muzzle was seen on the chest, thus indicating the contact nature of the wound. Examination of the exit in the back, however, revealed grains of ball powder in the exit wound and a cherry-red color in the adjacent muscle caused by carbon monoxide. The presence of carbon monoxide was confirmed analytically. To further confuse the interpretation of the wounds, the exit was shored. Thus, the exit in this case was characterized by an abraded margin, powder grains, and carbon monoxide. There has been a number of cases in which ball powder traveled through the body and was found at the exit. All cases involved contact wounds, with the entrances in both head and trunk. The weapons involved were of .22 Magnum, .38 Special, 9-mm Luger, .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum caliber. In one case, an individual had his hand in front of his face and in hard contact with the muzzle of a .357 Magnum when it discharged. Ball powder traveled through the hand tattooing the victim’s face. Contact wounds in regions of the body where only a thin layer of skin and subcutaneous tissue overlies bone usually have a stellate or cruciform appearance that is totally unlike the round or oval perforating wounds seen in other areas. The most common area in which stellate wounds occur is the head. The unusual appearance of contact wounds over bone is due to the effects of the gas of discharge. When a weapon is fired, the gases produced by the combustion of the propellant emerge from the barrel in a highly compressed state. In hard contact wounds, they follow the bullet through the skin into the subcutaneous tissue where they immediately begin to expand. In some contact wounds over bone, instead of the classical stellate or cruciform wound, one finds a very large circular wound with ragged, blackened, and seared margins. This type of wound is more common with the less powerful calibers such as the .32 ACP or .380 ACP.

The presence of tearing of the skin as well as its extent depends on the caliber of the weapon, the amount of gas produced by the combustion of the propellant, the firmness with which the gun is held against the body, and the elasticity of the skin. Thus, contact wounds of the head with a .22 Short usually produce no tearing, whereas those due to a .357 Magnum usually do. It must be stressed, however, that exceptions occur. Irregular, cruciform, or stellate entrance wounds can occur in individuals shot at intermediate or distant range, where gas plays no role in the production of a wound. These occur when the bullet perforates the skin over a bony prominence or curved area of bone covered by a thin layer of tightly stretched skin. The head is the most common site for such wounds.  In contact wounds of the head, if the skin and soft tissue are retracted, soot will usually be found deposited on the outer table of the skull at the entrance hole. Rarely, in contact wounds of the head from weapons of .38 Special caliber and greater that fire cartridges loaded with true (spherical) ball powder, the large irregular or stellate wounds produced may initially appear to show neither soot nor powder. Careful examination with a dissecting microscope will reveal small clusters of ball powder. It must be kept in mind, that the presence of only one or two grains of powder does not necessarily indicate a close range wound. The author has seen a number of distant entrance wounds in which one or two grains of powder have been carried to and deposited in the entrance wound by a bullet. In contact wounds of the trunk, stellate or cruciform entrances in the skin usually do not occur, even when the weapon and ammunition used produce large volumes of gas, because the gas is able to expand into the abdominal cavity, chest cavity, or soft tissue. Rarely, contact wounds of the chest overlying the sternum, inflicted by handguns firing high-velocity pistol ammunition, may produce extremely large circular wounds of entrance with ragged margins. Imprints of the muzzle of the weapon occur not only in regions where a thin layer of skin overlies bone but also in the chest and abdomen. A loose-contact wound is produced when the muzzle of the weapon is held in very light contact with the skin at the time of discharge. The skin is not indented by the muzzle. Gas preceding the bullet, as well as the bullet itself, indent the skin, creating a temporary gap between the skin and the muzzle through which gas can escape. Soot carried by the gas is deposited in a band around the entrance. This soot can be easily wiped away. A few unburnt grains of powder may also escape out this gap and be deposited on the skin in the band of soot. Particles of powder, vaporized metals, and soot will be deposited in the wound track along with carbon monoxide. The gas produced by combustion of the propellant can produce internal injuries as severe as or more severe than injuries produced by the bullet. Gas produced injuries are most severe in the head because of the closed and unyielding nature of the skull. The skull, unlike the chest or abdominal cavity, cannot expand to relieve the pressure of the entering gases. In contact wounds of the head from high-velocity rifles or shotguns, large quantities of gas entering the skull produce massive blow-out fractures with extensive mutilating injuries. The top of the head is often literally blown off with partial or complete evisceration of the brain. Contact wounds of the head with handguns, while often producing secondary skull fractures, do not ordinarily produce the massive injuries seen in high-velocity rifles and shotguns. Contact wounds of the abdomen and chest from handguns ordinarily do not produce striking injuries of the internal viscera due to gas. Exceptions occur with the high-velocity +P+ loadings and the .44 Magnum, especially if the wound is inflicted over the heart or the liver. An intermediate-range gunshot wound is one in which the muzzle of the weapon is away from the body at the time of discharge yet is sufficiently close so that powder grains emerging from the muzzle strike the skin producing powder tattooing; this is the sine qua non of intermediate-range gunshot  wounds. The size and density of the area of powder blackening vary with the caliber of the weapon, the barrel length, the type of propellant powder, and the distance from muzzle to target. As the range increases, the intensity of powder blackening decreases and the size of the soot pattern area increases. Although soot usually can be wiped away either by copious bleeding or intentional wiping, powder tattooing cannot. Tattooing consists of numerous reddish-brown to orange-red, punctate lesions surrounding the wound of entrance. Powder tattooing is an antemortem phenomenon and indicates that the individual was alive or at least that the heart was beating at the time the victim was shot. Flake powder usually is in the form of disks though some foreign manufacturers produce flake powder in the form of quadrangles. Circular disks of flake powder can vary greatly in diameter and thickness. If the graphite coating is lost the flakes have a pale green translucent appearance. The greater the range, the larger and less dense the powder tattoo pattern. The increase in size of the pattern is due to gradual dispersion of the powder grains, with decreased density of the pattern resulting not only from dispersion but also from rapid loss of velocity of the individual grains; fewer grains reach the target and those that do may not have enough velocity to mark the skin. At close range, a gun with a short barrel will produce a wider and denser tattoo pattern than a longer barrel weapon as more unburned particles of powder will emerge from the short barrel. In contrast, except at close range, flake powder usually does not produce powder tattooing through clothing or dense hair, as the grains of flake powder have difficulty in perforating these materials. In addition to soot and powder grains, other materials are deposited on the body when a weapon is discharged in close proximity to the body. These materials include: antimony, barium and lead from the primer; copper and zinc (sometimes nickel) vaporized from the cartridge case by the intense heat; fragments of metal stripped from or vaporized from previously fired bullets and deposited in the barrel; copper, aluminum or lead stripped or vaporized from the bullet that was fired; and the grease and oil that had coated the barrel or bullet before discharge. The metallic particles can be detected on the body or on clothing by soft x-ray if they are large enough. The flakes of powder were found to be very small, very thick yellow-green disks. The tattooing produced by these thick disks very closely resembled the tattooing of ball powder. Differentiation was possible only by observation of the thick disks in the wound. Powder tattooing may be present in angled contact wounds. In such wounds, as the angle between the barrel and skin decreases, the gap between the skin and barrel increases. At some point the gap becomes sufficiently large that unburnt grains of powder escaping through the gap will skim over the zone of seared skin, fanning out from the entrance, impacting distal to the entrance wound. In distant gunshot wounds, the muzzle of the weapon is sufficiently far from the body so that there is neither deposition of soot nor powder tattooing.

Clothing will absorb soot and powder, in some cases making close-range wounds appear to be distant by examination of the body alone. This points out the need for examination of the clothing in conjunction with the autopsy. The presence of isolated powder particles on either the clothing or the body does not necessarily signify that one is dealing with an intermediate range wound, as individual powder particles may travel considerable distances before deposition on the body. Whether powder perforates clothing to mark the skin depends on the nature of the material, the number of layers of cloth, and the physical form of the powder. With handguns, ball powder can readily perforate one and even two layers of cloth to produce tattooing of the underlying skin. Rarely, ball powder will perforate three layers. Range determinations cannot be made for distant gunshot wounds. Bullets fired from 5, 50, or 500 ft will produce identical entrances. Gunshot wounds of entrance, whatever the range, are identified by the presence of a reddish zone of abraded skin (the abrasion ring) around the entrance hole. This zone becomes brown and then black as it dries. The abrasion ring is due to the bullet rubbing raw the edges of the hole as it indents and pierces the skin.

Acknowledgements:

The Police Department;

www.politie.nl and a Chief Inspector – Mr. Erik Akerboom     ©

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Advertised

Muzzle

Velocities

Versus

Actual

Velocities

Cartridge

Advertised

Muzzle

Velocity (ft/sec)

2-in.

Barrel

4-in.

Barrel

6-in.

Barrel

Rifle

.22 Long rifle

1255

916

1034

1052

1237

.22 Short

1095

851

861

960

1005

.38 Special

855

687

722

765