Ballistic Trauma: Wound Ballistics—An Overview

Wound ballistics is the specialty in ballistics dealing with the interaction of bullet and tissue, resulting in lesions when humans or animals are hit. The lesions depend on the velocity and mass of the bullet as well as its design. Bullets are divided into low- and high-velocity bullets. Military bullets are by law fully jacketed whereas hunting, police and self-defense bullets are mostly expanding bullets. Shotguns use cartridges containing up to several hundred pellets and are predominantly used for hunting. Their short range and the fact that the pellets rarely perforate the target make them attractive for police work.