From: schuck@fraser.sfu.ca (Bruce Jonathan Schuck)
Subject: Re: mortal error
Reply-To: Bruce_Schuck@sfu.ca
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 06:06:09 GMT

waf9851@zeus.tamu.edu (FULLER, WALTER ANDREW III) writes:

>In article <schuck.718566000@sfu.ca>, Bruce_Schuck@sfu.ca writes...

>>FMJ rounds were *designed* to stay together and deform very little
>>in order to minimize the horrible wounds soldiers were suffering from
>>bullets that mushroomed and/or fragmented.

>Get real. Since when does the military supply bullets that won't deliver
>"horrible wounds" to enemy soldiers who get shot with them?

It had something to do with the Geneva Convention at the turn of the
century. Of course the US now uses high velocity 5.56mm rounds
designed to tumble and fragment. 

FMJ rounds fired into gelatin do not tumble very much at all and stay
intact much longer than higher velocity and/or soft-nosed hunting
ammunition.

>>It is *not* normal for an FMJ round to fragment or mushroom.

>Wrong again. In fact, it's hard NOT to get a FMJ round to fragment and
>especially mushroom. Just look at the test rounds fired into cadavers and
>goats which are shown in the Warren Report.

Yes there is deformity, but even the bullet fired into a cadaver wrist
at near muzzle velocity has only mushroomed a very small amount to
only about double the normal diameter. It hasn't fragmented at all.

>>It is entirely normal for an FMJ round fired at 2100 fps muzzle
>>velocity to only lose 200-300 fps when passing through a human body
>>unless it hits major bones. The skull is not that thick, certainly not
>>as thick as a rib or a wrist bone. Therefore a skull is *normally* not
>>going to slow an FMJ round very much. Therefore the energy imparted is
>>*normally* going to be very low.

>Strike three. The skull is the hardest and thickest bone in the human
>body. You can't even BEGIN to compare the skull to a rib! A bullet striking
>the skull head on is going to be horribly shredded, fragmented, and
>deformed. Brush up on your anatomy!

You brush up on yours. Almost all the 6.5mm FMJ rounds fired into test
skulls never broke up into more than 2 or three pieces.

JFK's skull had over 40 lead fragments in the brain and skull [at
least the one they claim is Kennedy's]

None of the testers, including Lattimer and Olivier got medium
velocity FMJ rounds to fragment so extensively. Most of the time the
worst that occured was that the jacket separated from the lead core.

Alvarez, when attempting to test his jet theory used soft-nosed
hunting ammunition and high velocity ammunition at that.
His rounds were fired at 3000 fps, while FMJ rounds are normally fired
at 2100 fps.

The JFK head wound is more consistent with soft-nosed hunting
ammunition where the round fragments upon impact. Donahue, in "Mortal
Error" argues it is consistent with a 5.56mm high velocity round which
has a much thinner copper jacket and tumbles immediately, shredding
the bullet into dozens of fragments.



-- 

All the demands made by the Quebec Nationalists can be summed up in
just one: keep giving us new powers and the money to exercise them, or
we'll leave -- Pierre Elliot Trudeau , 1992

Each new ransom paid to stave off the threat of schism will simply
encourage the master blackmailers to renew the threat and double the
ransom -- Pierre Elliot Trudeau , 1992

schuck@sfu.ca              Vote No on October 26th
  
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