Any ballistic experts out there? JFK Assassination ?

I am not by nature a conspiracy theorist. That said I can't help but believe that the assassination of JFK was not accomplished by a lone gunman. One of the things that has always made me believe there was more then one shooter is the final head shot. Here is a closeup from youtube of the Zaprueder film. Not for the faint of heart. Be warned if you haven't seen this or have kids looking over your shoulder it is shocking.

To me the damage done by the final shot is more characteristic of a varmint cartridge such as a 22-250 with a hollow point then the full metal jacketed 6.5 mm Carcano round. Any riflemen out there with an opinion ?

I am in hook, line, and sinker on this one, I have done a ton of research on this topic from both sides, so expect some huge posts when I get off work....

One of my favorite subjects Ballistically speaking besides the conspiracy theory's

Why? Based on observation against animals? Were hollowpoints common then? I have a pretty good understanding of external ballistics but no real understanding of terminal ballistics, so I can't help on this one. Should be an interesting thread though.

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Why? Based on observation against animals? Were hollowpoints common then? I have a pretty good understanding of external ballistics but no real understanding of terminal ballistics, so I can't help on this one. Should be an interesting thread though.

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Full jacketed bullets tend to go through without much expansion or tissue damage beyond the wound channel. Varmint rounds as the gun magazines described them are explosive. Crows and woodchucks are blown apart by a 220 Swift or a 22-250. The explosive impact of the head shot has always left me with the impression it had to be a high velocity 22 centerfire cartridge with a hollow point. Here is a Wiki write up on their characteristics and history

Not a conspiracy theorist either!:thinking:

That clip, which I thought I had seen before but had not, is jaw dropping. Not to mention mind expanding. Sorry could not resist. It looks, to this non-ballistically educated Brit, as if half his head disintegrates. How can there not have been at least two guns used? It also seems as if the first lot did not do that much damage, so whoever was behind the gun thought "Stuff this! Let's try something BIGGER!"

I'm no JFK expert, but if I recall, there was not a whole lot of time between the shots. That was one of the arguments made by the two shooter camp was that Oswald was not a good enough shot to get all the rounds off in the time frame with a bolt action weapon. That was proved a weak argument after looking at his boot camp scores though. Anyway, there was far too little time for someone to think about their ammo choice, grab a different round, load, then fire it. If different rounds were used, they'd have had to come from different guns. That or have two different kinds rounds loaded in the magazine.
I'm sure I probably have some detail wrong there- go ahead, rip it apart Glen :)

The history channel had a great program on the JFK assassination, and how it was carried out by a lone gunman. They did a really great job of debunking the myths of multiple gunmen. I will try and find a link for it because it was really good.

Matt

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Originally Posted by mhailey

The history channel had a great program on the JFK assassination, and how it was carried out by a lone gunman. They did a really great job of debunking the myths of multiple gunmen. I will try and find a link for it because it was really good.

Matt

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I saw that as well. It addressed this and a bunch of other conspiracy theories as well. Fun to conjecture about this, but it's all been hashed and re-hashed before.
What's next? We really didn't land men on the moon? Uh-oh-another can of worms????

not necessarily. FMJ rounds, especially longer bullets like the 6.5mm will stop spinning (or slow down, anyway) upon impact. this causes the bullet to yaw violently as it destabilizes. frequently, this will lead to the bullet shattering along the crimp line or cannelure as it becomes perpendicular to the primary trajectory. fackler's ballistic study of the 5.56x45mm proved this pretty definitively.

i dunno if anyone else shot JFK nor do i give a damn, but i'm sick of hearing about how FMJ bullets don't break up. they do. much of the time. 6.5mm cartridges are especially notorious for doing this (see terminal ballistics for 6.5Grendel or 260Rem and you'll see what I mean) which is why they are frequently used for hunting smaller stuff like whitetail or coyotes.

typically the fragmentation range for FMJ bullets is mach2 or better (2230 feet per second) so as long as the bullet was moving that fast, it SHOULD fragment. most 6.5mm projectiles have very, VERY high ballistic coefficients (above .5, sometimes as high as .7) so they hang on to velocity very VERY well. it's not uncommon for a 6.5Grendel to still be at fragmentation speeds after 400-500 yards. the shot was taken well within that range, there is no reason to think the bullet wouldn't have fragmented.

If the history channel and their brief and superficial presentations are enough for you that is fine. I will remain in the company of those who believe that there was a conspiracy including President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Warren Commission member and Senator Richard Russel and a myriad of others. To those who weren't at least old enough to be cognizant of the assassination in real time it is probably the same as a debate on some event afar off in history. To me and others of my age group it had a similar impact as did the tragic events of 9-11. I understand that though. For me Pearl Harbor and WWII could never generate the same feelings as they did for those who lived in the times when it occurred.