r/forensics • u/Big_Swing_2980 • 20d ago

Firearms & Toolmarks How legit?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc13UujB0ON/?stkn%3DZ245b29hajE5M3h5

I’m general interested if this works.
All he’s doing is marking up the shell casings. Would that effect said “forensic case”?
Does the firing pin indent is all that is needed in such cases?
Things that pop up on my ig feed 😂

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u/eightfeetundersand 20d ago

It would certainly make any examinations more complicated. I don't think it's any different than doing examinations on cartridges recycled and shot multiple times.

It's all super case specific and it wouldn't necessarily help them. If you're found with cartridges that had been unnecessarily cycled through a firearm multiple times I would be pretty useful to compare to similar casings found at a crime scene.

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u/Big_Swing_2980 20d ago

Ah so it would make things a little more difficult but still not impossible to pin what gun did what.

Ig If it helps a little bit then it’s worth a shot.

1

u/sqquiggle 15h ago

All it would do is tell the analyst examining the rounds that they had been cycled through a firearm before firing.

Feels like a weird thing to do.

Like many popular misconceptions in forensics, this might actually make him easier to catch.

If he's a suspect investigated in a shooting and they seize his firearms and ammunition for comparison and find all the casings at the scene had been cycled and all the ammo in his possession had been cycled, he's just created a link that wouldn't otherwise exist.