Wound ballistic simulation of a headshot with .223 Rem

ABSTRACT

In the context of a crime scene, it became necessary to examine whether a direct shot to the head with calibre .223 Rem. could happen without creating an exit wound. A simplified head model consisting of a bone-sphere filled with gelatine was compared with a more realistic model considering the inner bone structure of the human skull. It turned out that both models show significantly different behaviour. While the bullet normally penetrates the simplified model and causes an exit defect, it was found that bullet fragmentation can happen in the more realistic model due to grazing along inner bones. The fragments might not perforate the skin and remain inside the skull without creating an exit defect.

KEYWORDS:

• Wound ballistics
• headshot
• 223 Remington
• temporal bone

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Jan Eckert and Klaus Hammer for helpful discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The calibre 5,56 × 45 mm differs only slightly from calibre .223 Remington. Because the differences are negligible in the context of this study, .223 Rem. cartridges were used.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.