Is there some sort of bullet study?

Question

I am an author and am researching some facts before I start writing down anything.

Can a policeman/detective have any form of bullet study?

For example, if the bullet is found in the room at the exact position it fell and they know which type of gun was used, can they determine at what angle and from what position the gun was fired?

Thanks so much to anyone who helps me out

Answer 1

Yes. This is the study of Forensics.

When a bullet strikes an object, it will leave a mark. This mark can be measured, and then a trajectory read off of it. Once you have the trajectory then you can use geometry and deduce where the bullet was fired from.

Answer 2

It depends on what data they have.  Mostly they speculate on the most likely scenario.

For instance the body is found next to the piano bench and the angle of bullit entry suggests the person was shot from behind by someone standing up behind them.  Therefore the killer was taller than the seated victim.

When in fact the person was bent over looking in the piano bench for sheet music and was shot by a child who was standing in front of them.

Far too many people are convicted because under these circumstances that's what happens 9 times out of ten.  Well here is the tenth time!

That family in Florida who's infant son disappeared and was found dead out side the home.  The cops hounded mom and dad because 90% of the time the parents do it.  Well this was that other 10%.

If you look into the pasture don't look for the zebra because it is almost always horses.  But zebras do exist.

Answer 3

They can sometimes determine the caliber of the gun by looking at the bullet.  If the bullet is badly damaged the lab would still be able to find that out.   All rifles and pistols have rifling in the barrel that produce very specific marks on the bullet.  These marks, called grooves and lans, are like a fingerprint, in that every gun will leave a different set of marks.  When/if they find the suspected weapon, they can positively prove whether or not that particular weapon shot the offending bullet by test firing it and matching the marks to another bullet.  Also, they can usually tell the brand of weapon using these marks, as different manufacturers use different rifling patterns.  When they find the hole the bullet made they can usually determine the point it was fired by inserting a long stick, sometimes with a laser pointing device on the end, and following the angle of the stick.  A lot of times, if they have done that, they can determine the position of a victims body at the time of the shooting, assuming the bullet traveled through the body.

Answer 4

Yes.  Ballistics and forensics.

Answer 5

Have studies been done on bullets and them being fired from guns?  Yes, they have been done in the hundreds.

It is impossible however to tell from where a bullet is or how it landed to tell where it came from.  

Other things are used to determine what fired the bullet, such as caliber of the bullet, grooves from the barrel, damage the bullet may have caused, blood or fragments on the bullet, etc.