Gauge Shotgun Research Articles

The Billey Joe Johnson Homicide

The victim, Billey Joe Johnson Jr., died in 2008 by a near contact, penetrating 12 gauge shotgun discharge to his left head at the ear. The manner of death was “undetermined” by the medical examiner. A county grand jury and two independent pathologists concluded the death was accidental. Another pathologist concluded suicide. Five digital cameras documented the shooting scene over a period of more than 11 h. There was no expert shooting scene reconstruction before this report. We observed 1) the shotgun’s position at discharge was not possible for either suicide or accident scenarios. 2) Stun gun wounds, centered within a halo of hyperemia, were on the victim’s right lateral mid-lumbar skin. 3) The body was moved twice before the scene image documentation and processing by law enforcement. The shooting scene was staged. 4) A love note, which had a blood transfer likely from an assailant, was left in the victim’s vehicle at the scene. 5) The staging of the shooting scene continued into the scene processing, which was documented by the image metadata time stamps. 6) Multiple persons were involved in the homicide.

Review of priority welfare issues of commercially raised bison in North America

A review of the scientific literature on bison was carried out as part of the National Farm Animal Care Council´s (NFACC) process of updating Canada’s current Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farmed Bison. Four priority welfare issues were identified: the effect of seasonality on the nutritional requirements of bison; bison behaviour; euthanasia on-farm; and pain. Bison reduce their feed intake and activity during winter, sparing energy reserves during periods of cold temperatures and food scarcity. To promote consistent carcass quality in this highly seasonal animal, producers commonly feed bison high grain diets. It has been suggested that feeding bison high concentrate finishing diets, greater than 80%, over a significant period of time, is likely to cause ruminal acidosis. Research is required into strategies that could help producers manage the effects of seasonality and to make it work to their advantage. When bison are unable to compensate for nutritional seasonality in summer it can lead to reduced herd fertility from poor nutrition and reduced body condition. Regarding behaviour, the handling of bison differs from traditional cattle handling techniques, as they do not move the same way through handling facilities. Injuries and death during handling are more likely to occur if bison are handled incorrectly. They are more excitable than cattle, which have been bred for calm temperaments. Bison have a very intact social structure that has definite spacing requirements. The flight zone of bison tends to be much greater than that of cattle, and bison can be moved most effectively if the handlers work on the edge of it. Bison that become severely stressed during handling can suffer from a recognized condition known as capture myopathy. Handling facilities should restrict bison’s vision and minimize loud noises. Bison should never be left in isolation as solitary bison display high levels of agitation. In the event of euthanizing bison on-farm, specific information regarding the gauge, calibre of firearm, and bullet selection is lacking. However, the combination of firearm and ammunition selected must achieve a muzzle energy of at least 1000 ft-lb (1356 J) for animals larger than 400lbs (181 kg). Understanding the correct landmarks for euthanizing bison are especially important as they are anatomically different from cattle. Due to the physical thickness of a bison skull, higher calibre firearms or heavier gauge shotguns are required than those used for other species. Bison producers in Canada rarely, castrate or brand animals, and they are seldom dehorned. There is currently a lack of peer reviewed research regarding the effect of painful procedures in bison, however, there is little reason to suspect their physiological responses to pain are different to cattle. Both freeze branding and hot-iron branding cause pain and distress in bison, however in cattle, freeze branding causes less acute pain at the time of the procedure which would likely be similar to bison.

Unusual sources of Sn in GSR. An experimental study by SEM and IBA

Gunshot Residue (GSR) produced by the discharge of a firearm often provides very useful information in criminal investigations in cases involving the use of firearms. Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with an Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer (SEM-EDS) is typically used worldwide to visualize micrometric particles constituting GSR and to analyse their elemental composition. The 2017 ASTM Standard guide for gunshot residue analysis by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy specifies that “Particles classified as characteristic of GSR will have one of the following elemental compositions: Lead, antimony, barium; Lead, barium, calcium, silicon, tin”. For the first time, the presence of an additional element, such as Sn, plays a key role in ASTM particle classification. It is known that some ammunitions, used for pistols, revolvers and rifles, contain tin foil discs for sealing the primer mixture into the cup, resulting in GSR particles containing Sn. The authors faced some cases in which Sn was unexpectedly found in GSR particles from a 0.22 Long Rifle derringer and from some 12 gauge shotguns. No tin foil discs are used in rimfire ammunitions and there is no published evidence of tin foil discs in shotshell ammunitions. Following a “case by case” approach, experimental research has been carried out to explain how Sn can be present in GSR particles when the last discharged cartridge also does not contain any Sn either in components and in the explosive charges.Moreover, the use of Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) showed the capability to overcome overlap ambiguity of Sb and Sn peaks in the X-ray spectra, being a possible key issue in real shooting cases if Sn quantities are below the lower limit of SEM detection, especially when Sb is also present.

Acceptable Noise Levels for Typical Outdoor Leisure Activities

Throughout the Appalachian Mountain chain, entrepreneurs have capitalized on the outdoor sporting experience. Both summer and winter sports such as fly fishing, hiking, skiing and snowboarding are very popular. One popular emerging activity is skeet, trap, and sporting clays shooting. Major tourist enterprises are developing this opportunity for both tourists and the local residents. To meet the increasing demand, ranges are being constructed throughout the region from Alabama to Maine. Within North Carolina that are approximately 12 ranges, with an additional 10 in east Tennessee. Although these activities have had few opponents, sporting clays establishments have received an insignificant number of complaints that the noise level is above the noxious level. A research experiment was designed to test noise levels at one sporting clays course situated near a vacation resort. The first phase of this experiment determined that the noise levels at the source from 12 and 20 gauge shotguns were insignificant. The allowable rounds used are the standard reduced load target load. At the source there was a significant difference between trap (85.85 dBA) and skeet (74.95 dBA). At the closest guest location (second phase) 333 samples were taken between August 2015 and March 2016. The noise level averaged 53.7 dBA (σ = 7.43dBA). During the third phase (January to March 2016) 44 samples were obtained at the main resort lodging site. At Site 2 the noise level averaged 31.9 dBA (σ = 5.45). The fourth and final phase of this study was to determine the noise levels at the closest guest location for each of the 12 sporting clays stations. Ninety-six samples (8 per station) were collected in October 2016. The average noise level was 53.0 dBA (σ 4.19 dBA). An analysis at the statistical confidence level of 97.5% was conducted. First all stations were analyzed in a pairwise comparison analysis. Stations that were not significantly different from one another were combined. Thus the 12 stations were reduced to three combined stations. The analysis determined that the noise level from stations 1 through 5 (48.9dBA, σ =1.50 dBA) was significantly lower than from the other stations. Next loudest was the combinations of stations 6, 7, 10, and 11 (54.1 dBA, σ = 1.69). The last loudest combination was stations 8, 9, and 12 (58.6 dBA, σ = 1.50 dDA). Thus there was a difference of 9.7 dBA between the lowest and the loudest station. Since every 5 dBA difference equates to 2 to 3 times louder, depending on frequency, the loudest station is approximately 4 to 6 times louder that the lowest noise level. However, all stations are below the OSHA Standard. With an annoyance level (60.0 dBA) for the guest activity, the gunshots are less than the nuisance level and significantly less than the permissible level. The few complaints about the noise levels are not supported by the noise level data. A logical conclusion is that the objection is the act of shooting and not the noise level of the shotgun’s sharp or impact report. Potential solutions might be to examine stations 8, 9, and 12 and considering possible relocation, orientation, or emplacement of a thick tree barrier to absorb the reports. Regression analysis was used to develop a highly significant model to predict noise levels with the variables collected. However, this will not solve the complaints from those who object to reports under any circumstance.

Genesis or Genocide? Leonard Wood, Theodore Roosevelt and the White Man’s Empire in the Southern Philippines

On March 5, 1906, United States Army units under the command of Brigadier General Leonard Wood attacked a band of Filipino Muslims, Tausug Moros, who had taken refuge on Bud Dajo, a volcanic summit on Jolo Island in the Sulu archipelago of the southern Philippines. The operation culminated in the massacre of approximately 600 to 1000 men, women, and children. It fed outrage among anti-imperialists in the United States appalled at the carnage of empire building.2 Prior to the assault on Bud Dajo, Brigadier General Wood and his staff believed that the gathering on the summit was an opportunity to demonstrate U.S. military dominance and political authority in the region. In its aftermath Wood and his staff viewed the event as an extremely effective operation, which had met all its stated objectives. It also exemplified an approach to dealing with the indigenous Muslim population, the Moros, which Wood had advocated since his arrival as Governor General of the southern Philippines, a territory renamed the Provinces by the Philippines Commission in 1901. U.S. policy-makers had decided that the Moros were a people for whom was their religion and like a national sport and who were incapable of self-rule.3President Theodore Roosevelt and General Leonard Wood were not only principal players in this act, but also very close friends and proponents of a new brand of white masculinity for a new century and a vigorous overseas American empire. They saw in this expansionist project a new frontier for white men to test their mettle against and barbarous races. Wood also saw this type of warfare as germane to the future expansion of U.S. power beyond the American continent. President Roosevelt believed Wood to be the perfect candidate to restrain the Moros and bring them to accept U.S. authority. In the case of Wood, it also offered the proving ground for a new kind of army and a modernized method of warfare, and so called savage wars of peace, which forged its genesis on the American frontier.4 An analysis of the less studied relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and Leonard Wood provides a framework for understanding how transformations of gender and increasing racial tensions in the United States directly shaped military policy in the Southern Philippines.Roosevelt and Wood categorized Moros as a particularly uncivilized race. In 1896 Theodore Roosevelt had declared that allowing self-rule for Filipinos would be like granting self-government to an Apache reservation under some local chief, thus dismissing all Filipinos as incapable of self rule. Once armed with this certainty of Moro character, U.S. Army officials, during the tenure of Governor General Wood, embarked on a campaign to eradicate Moros' political and cultural authority.5In total, close to one thousand Americans and their allies attacked the summit, fully equipped with .30 caliber Krag rifles, .45 caliber Springfield rifles, 12 gauge shotguns, and Colt forty-five revolvers. In addition to four mountain guns, the U.S. Army and the Navy introduced three Colt Automatic Machine guns into combat. About seven hundred to one thousand Tausug Moros faced this impressive array of professional soldiers wielding advanced weaponry. The Tausug were armed with a total of one hundred to one hundred and fifty rifles, about half as many pistols, an assortment of swords, knives, and projectiles (including large rocks), and six to eight lantacas6Once the shooting ceased, General Wood gave the order to incinerate all the bodies in place and withdraw immediately, actions that resulted in an inaccurate count of bodies and weapons. Numerous reports by the attackers claimed that the Tausug used women and children as shields, claiming this tactic accounted for the great loss of life among them. The Colt Automatic Machine guns that destroyed the community Masjid inflicted many deaths of non-combatant women, old people, and children. In addition many Tausug women willingly participated in the fight against the Americans. …

A Ballistics Study of the Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 Ammunition

The Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 .410 gauge shotgun ammunition for the Taurus Judge revolver is uniquely comprised of three copper-plated discs, 12 copper-plated BB shot pellets and a plastic shot cup. To evaluate potential wounding patterns, we characterized superficial impact, penetration, and penetration with an intermediate target. Surface patterns were assessed with foam core boards. Penetration was assessed using gelatin blocks. Penetration with an intermediate target was assessed using gelatin blocks covered by a povidone-iodine soaked shirt. All blocks were radiographed and scanned by computed tomography (CT). At increasing muzzle-to-target distances, the overall projectile spread pattern increased. There was consistent separation of the three copper-plated discs at distances beyond six feet. Discs remained centrally located with the pellets spread peripherally, in a circular pattern. This pattern persisted in the penetration tests, with the discs penetrating deeper than the pellets. Radio-opaque clothing fragments were identified both superficially and deep within the gelatin blocks. Rifling conferred stability to the coaxially aligned discs and imparted centrifugal forces to the non-aligned pellets resulting in the surface and gelatin patterns. The combination of surface and radiographic findings should allow a forensic pathologist to suspect this ammunition prior to dissection. Wounds created by this ammunition in living patients might require extensive debridement to avoid abscess formation and foreign body reactions.

The use of hormonal therapy in “andropause”: the con side

The use of hormonal therapy in “andropause”: the con side

Listlessness in the Archive

Listlessness in the Archive

Findings in Gunshot Wounds from Tandem Projectiles

Tandem projectiles are unusual events which can cause erroneous case interpretations if one is unfamiliar with them. This paper presents two such cases. The first case involved three .32 caliber bullets, two of which became lodged in a revolver barrel because of faulty ammunition. A third fired bullet subsequently pushed itself and the lodged bullets out of the barrel resulting in a single entrance wound with three bullets in the body. The second case involved a 20 gauge shotgun shell which apparently was inadvertently loaded into a 12 gauge shotgun. This resulted in an unusual entrance wound and unusual X-rays with fragments of the 20 gauge shotgun shell, as well as 12 gauge shotgun shell wadding, being removed from the same wound. The pertinent findings in such cases are discussed so that they may be correctly identified when they occur.

Comparison of Contact Shotgun Wounds of the Head Produced by Different Gauge Shotguns

A series of 89 contact shotgun wounds of the head were evaluated to compare the extent of wounding produced by different gauge shotguns. Twelve gauge shotguns were the most common, accounting for 69% of the cases, followed by 20 gauge (18%), .410 caliber (10%), and 16 gauge (3%). The mouth was the most common entry site, used in 62% of cases. Comparison of contact intraoral shotgun wounds revealed statistically significant differences between 12 gauge and 20 gauge wounds. Whereas the extent of internal destruction was similar with both gauges, intraoral 12 gauge shotgun wounds caused bursting of the head with lacerations of the face, forehead, and scalp in 74% of cases, while only 9% of 20 gauge wounds produced a similar extent of external disruption. The external head remained fully intact in 55% of 20 gauge intraoral wounds. To account for the threshold effect for head bursting between 20 gauge and 12 gauge shotgun blasts, commercial shotshell and reloading data were analyzed. While there was considerable overlap between the two gauges, a common 12 gauge load would generate 50% more kinetic energy and 40% greater volume of gas than a common 20 gauge load. Comparison of shotgun blasts at entry sites outside of the mouth showed similar differences. Wounds from .410 shotguns were similar to those from 20 gauge weapons, and 16 gauge shotguns produced wounds intermediate between 20 and 12 gauge.

Range of Fire Estimates from Shotgun Pellet Patterns: The Effect of Shell and Barrel Temperature

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of range-of-fire estimates in shotgun pellet patterns at fixed intervals. It was also of interest to investigate the effect of barrel and shell temperature changes on the diameter of pellet patterns. One hundred shots were fired from a .12 gauge shotgun though a series of 5 in-line paper targets positioned at 5-foot intervals between 15 and 35 feet from the muzzle. A series of confidence intervals was calculated to determine the error in range-of-fire estimates. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that shell but not barrel temperature significantly reduced pattern diameter.

Ballistic Characteristics of Shot Shell Buffer

Abstract Many modern buckshot and larger diameter bird shot shotgun shells currently contain granulated plastic shot buffer. The presence of granulated buffer at a shooting scene provides valuable and immediate evidence of the general type of weapon and ammunition used. The ballistic characteristics of the buffer however are not commonly known but could be helpful in determining range of fire. Using felt targets and various types of 12 gauge shotguns and ammunition (2¾ in. shells), we discovered adherent buffer on the targets up to 20 ft (6.1 m) from the muzzle. Surprisingly, buffer would penetrate light cotton cloth (white T-shirt) at ranges up to or nearly up to the maximum range of adherent buffer on the plain felt targets. The diameter of buffer spread was up to 9 to 10 times that of the pellet spread. The buffer distribution diameter peaked at 3.3 ft (1.0 m) between the 8 to 10 ft (2.4 to 3.1 m) range of fire and remained roughly constant at 28 in. (.7 m) throughout the buffer adherence range beyond 10 ft. Along the ground buffer was demonstrated up to 30 ft (9.2 m) from the muzzle but was concentrated in the 12 to 22 ft (3.7 to 6.7 m) range. Buffer clearly could be deposited on objects not struck by pellets. The presence of buffer, but not its distribution diameter, was helpful in determining range of fire.

The San Ysidro massacre: A community response to tragedy

On the afternoon of July 18, 1984, James Oliver Huberty, a forty-one year old unemployed welder, walked into a McDonald's fast food restaurant in San Ysidro, California. He was armed with a twelve gauge shotgun, a semi-automatic pistol, a nine millimeter Uzi semi-automatic rifle and a load of ammunition. Soon after entering the restaurant he pulled out the shotgun and killed one of the employees. Then he shouted Everybody down! and began spraying bullets throughout the store. After more than forty minutes of terror a police sharp shooter killed Huberty. Twenty-one people lay dead, fifteen were injured. Most of the victims were Mexican-American residents of the border town of San Ysidro or Mexicans from nearby Tijuana, Mexico. This tragic event was the largest mass murder in American history. This is a survey of the social and political impact of the San Ysidro massacre on the local Mexican and Mexican-American communities. The psychological and public health dimensions of this event have been part of a larger study being concluded by a research team headed by Professors Ramon Valle, Bill Vega, and Richard Hough. Here I want to focus mainly on the public community responses to the tragedy from the point of view of social history. San Ysidro's community response to the tragedy reflected the particular dynamics of its status as a marginal ethnic enclave within the City of San Diego. For many years one of the main themes in the history of this U.S. border town had been its neglect by the city administration. Until July 1984, San Ysidro was a forgotten village. In one day the massacre brought unprecedented public attention to San Ysidro and politicized large segments of the local population. The tragedy insured that San Diego would not soon forget its ethnic border town.

Shooting distance estimation for shots fired by a shotgun loaded with buckshot cartridges

The present study was carried out to clarify the problem of shooting distance estimation, by studying shots fired with buckshot ammunition in 12 gauge shotgun. For this purpose, the pattern diameter (PD) and the distances between buckshot (DBB) within the pattern were evaluated. Experimental shots were carried out with three differently choked barrels: full, half and cylinder; Winchester-Western OOB and OB buckshot ammunition were used. The results show that the estimation of shooting distance, based on the present parameters, is scarcely reliable especially when this estimation must be calculated on the basis of only a few wound holes on which measurements are made.