Date of Award

Summer 8-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department/Program

Forensic Science

Language

English

First Advisor or Mentor

Peter Diaczuk

Second Reader

Patrick McLaughlin

Third Advisor

Andrew Winter

Abstract

Polymer coated bullets were designed to limit a shooter’s exposure to lead. However, despite the advantages that these bullets give there are still difficulties which arise in a forensic firearms examination. Unlike in a typical metal coated bullet, individualizing striations will typically not be imparted to a polymer coated bullet making it unable to be linked to a specific firearm. Due to this difficulty any information that can be gained at the scene of the crime could be crucial. Some obtainable information includes the angle of ricochet and the angle of incidence of the discharged bullet as well as traces from the polymer coating found at the impact mark. In this project the ricochet angle and angle of incidence were calculated using a trigonometric equation, and the velocity was also measured with a chronograph. The data was collected using 9 mm Luger Federal brand total synthetic jacket (TSJ) bullets and 9 mm Luger Federal brand full metal jacket (FMJ) bullets. The selected substrates were sheetrock®, sheet metal, and durock® cement boards. Upon the collection of the velocity data the TSJ bullets had a significantly lower average velocity (p-value of


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