As a former resident of Oregon Hill (and current
resident of Richmond), I was always surprised to hear
the short bursts of fully automatic gunfire let loose
on New Year's Eve.  I'm glad to finally know what
happened to at least a few of those rounds.

As for bullet impact studies the forensic literature
would be a good place to check, but studies
investigating the .58 caliber range may be hard to
come by.  Large round musket balls may also be a
relatively unstudied area.

Best wishes,

Dane Magoon

--- "Daniel H. Weiskotten" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> It is 7:30 pm here in Richmond, I was just outside
> chasing rats or cats
> with the dogs and I hear that the horrid gunfire of
> new years celebrants in
> the surrounding hoods has begun.  Since I have found
> two bullets in my
> gutters in the three years that we have lived in our
> nice little house I
> expect a chance of the same after tonight.
>
> I do have a question, though ...
>
> At my recent dig at Chesterfield Courthouse, despite
> intense occupation
> during the American Revolution, the Civil War, and
> 250 years of militia men
> and reenactors marching around I found only a few
> items that could be
> related to military activities - two nice gunflints,
> a CW button (in the
> grass!) and a mushroomed Civil War bullet (so badly
> damaged as to fully
> identify).
>
> My question ...
>
> How do we differentiate between bullets that have
> been fired into flesh,
> trees, soil, through clothing, etc?  Have there been
> any good studies, or
> anything on-going?
>
> The bullets in my gutters were still perfectly
> formed, indicating that
> their velocity dropped to natural terminal and are
> not damaged at that rate.
>
> Happy New Year!
>
>         Dan W.


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Find out what made the Top Yahoo! Searches of 2003
http://search.yahoo.com/top2003