Categories: Articles, Crime Investigation, Law Enforcement & Corrections, Resources for Attorneys Bullet Behavior TASA ID: 8673 Ricochet Characteristics: Smaller, faster moving bullets tend to fragment upon impact rather than ricochet so they would have a lower or more acute critical angle than larger, slower moving bullets. With this in mind, a .45 ACP moving at approximately 800 fps is an ideal cartridge to use when conducting experiments with ricochets. Investigators in the field typically would not have the requisite information available to estimate a critical angle when a ricochet marking is discovered at a crime scene so field testing with a similar cartridge and the same or similar substrate would be a benefit to the CSI’s analysis when calculating the approximate critical angle is necessary.References:Hueske, Ed. "Recognition and Documentation of Bullet Ricochet Characteristics and Predicting Directionalities." Journal of the Southwestern Association of Forensic Scientists (July 2003)Hueske, Ed./ “Practical Analysis and Reconstruction of Shooting Incidents – Second Edition” Chapter 13 Bullet Ricochet Phenomena. TASA Article DisclaimerThis article discusses issues of general interest and does not give any specific legal or business advice pertaining to any specific circumstances. Before acting upon any of its information, you should obtain appropriate advice from a lawyer or other qualified professional.This article may not be duplicated, altered, distributed, saved, incorporated into another document or website, or otherwise modified without the permission of TASA and the author (TASA ID #: 8763). Contact marketing@tasanet.com for any questions.Please download the pdf below to read more. Print Tasa ID8673 Documents to download FINAL Bullet Behaviors(.pdf, 1.62 MB) - 148 download(s)