Thread: Any ballistic experts out there? JFK Assassination ?

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.

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.

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!

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

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

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 have shot a lot of different type rounds thru my 22-250 and I can say with a fair amount of certainty based on the terminal results that it wasn't that round. A long range shot using a Nosler partition might duplicate that but not a hollowpoint...and not any type bullet shot at close range.

When one of those small caliber hyper velocity rounds hits something hard like bone they tend to fragment with spectacular results...hence the term "red mist". If you want to see for yourself find someone with a 22-250 and put a watermelon behind a piece of 1/4" plywood...shoot it at around 100 yards and see what happens. Better yet film that and post it!