Odd Job
01-03-2007, 11:52
Gents, I have a case in my research file that needs a few loose ends tied up. First I'll tell you the story and then I'll show you the radiograph.
The story: a young man sustained a gunshot wound in Johannesburg, South Africa in August 2002. He came to my hospital where I was doing a study involving gunshot wounds and I needed only three more cases to get my 150 total. He is case number 148.
When he came in I photographed his wounds (heel and ankle), his clothing (a sports shoe) and I took X-rays of the affected limb.
He had quite a nasty wound in the achilles area and he had another smaller one behind the lateral malleolus. Here is the AP radiograph of the ankle:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g154/Odd_Job/Insert1.jpg
He had quite a bad fracture of his tibia, involving the ankle joint. There were pieces of lead in the wound and you can see one of the skin breach markers laterally. The other is cropped off the image. The curious thing here is the arrowed item. It is a fully intact symmetrical projectile component with a radiological density that suggests it is a solid piece of metal. You don't see these every day at the hospital. It can only be an insert from an armour-piercing round, or similarly designed projectile. But there is no jacketing seen anywhere on the radiograph.
I proceeded to examine the shoe and I found that it had several breaches in the heel support area, some of these breaches were penetrating only. When I X-rayed the shoe, I found more pieces of lead embedded in the shoe, but still no jacketing. There were a few 'wipe' marks on the shoe that could possibly been from pieces of lead and/or jacketing.
So the bottom line on the projectile is that it has definite lead components, an insert that is probably a solid metal other than lead (it did not deform even after causing such a bad fracture and being lodged in the tibia). Although I didn't find any jacketing anywhere, I cannot prove that there was no jacket. In fact the evidence before me suggests that this bullet fragmented before encountering the shoe and this guy just caught two major fragments therof, which in turn fragmented within his ankle. The insert could not be retrieved at surgery because to do so would have rendered the internal fixation less stable.
Now I have asked some people about this insert and I have one very good lead that has resulted in me being able to say that the insert is possibly from a certain type of ammunition. In other words the samples of that ammunition's insert, when X-rayed at a certain angle, match Case 148's radiological appearances exactly.
But...before I pat myself on the back I need to make sure there aren't any other types of inserts that match that contour.
So please, if you have seen an insert with that contour, I want to know the make and the calibre of the bullet in which it is embedded.
After a while I will tell you about my matching sample and I will provide pictures of it. But at the moment I don't want to put a bias on this question.
The story: a young man sustained a gunshot wound in Johannesburg, South Africa in August 2002. He came to my hospital where I was doing a study involving gunshot wounds and I needed only three more cases to get my 150 total. He is case number 148.
When he came in I photographed his wounds (heel and ankle), his clothing (a sports shoe) and I took X-rays of the affected limb.
He had quite a nasty wound in the achilles area and he had another smaller one behind the lateral malleolus. Here is the AP radiograph of the ankle:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g154/Odd_Job/Insert1.jpg
He had quite a bad fracture of his tibia, involving the ankle joint. There were pieces of lead in the wound and you can see one of the skin breach markers laterally. The other is cropped off the image. The curious thing here is the arrowed item. It is a fully intact symmetrical projectile component with a radiological density that suggests it is a solid piece of metal. You don't see these every day at the hospital. It can only be an insert from an armour-piercing round, or similarly designed projectile. But there is no jacketing seen anywhere on the radiograph.
I proceeded to examine the shoe and I found that it had several breaches in the heel support area, some of these breaches were penetrating only. When I X-rayed the shoe, I found more pieces of lead embedded in the shoe, but still no jacketing. There were a few 'wipe' marks on the shoe that could possibly been from pieces of lead and/or jacketing.
So the bottom line on the projectile is that it has definite lead components, an insert that is probably a solid metal other than lead (it did not deform even after causing such a bad fracture and being lodged in the tibia). Although I didn't find any jacketing anywhere, I cannot prove that there was no jacket. In fact the evidence before me suggests that this bullet fragmented before encountering the shoe and this guy just caught two major fragments therof, which in turn fragmented within his ankle. The insert could not be retrieved at surgery because to do so would have rendered the internal fixation less stable.
Now I have asked some people about this insert and I have one very good lead that has resulted in me being able to say that the insert is possibly from a certain type of ammunition. In other words the samples of that ammunition's insert, when X-rayed at a certain angle, match Case 148's radiological appearances exactly.
But...before I pat myself on the back I need to make sure there aren't any other types of inserts that match that contour.
So please, if you have seen an insert with that contour, I want to know the make and the calibre of the bullet in which it is embedded.
After a while I will tell you about my matching sample and I will provide pictures of it. But at the moment I don't want to put a bias on this question.