An overdriven soft point or hollow point bullet could have lost more than half of the front of its core and jacket upon impact due to fragmentation.
The remaining lead core could have slipped out of the jacket and exited the neck. Its exit speed would have been greatly reduced by the impact. The jacket could have remained within the victim. "Core-jacket separation" is a phenomenon mentioned on many sites and forums.
If the doctor had not gathered up every piece of the bullet and weighed them, then compared them against the suspect's remaining rounds, he may not have realized a portion of the bullet was not stopped miraculously by the victim's neck.
When the shooting literature says "bullet," they usually mean the projectile which comes out of the barrel, not the entire "cartridge" or "round" which is loaded into the gun.
30-06 is an old and still very popular cartridge. Ammunition loaded with a wide variety of bullet types is available which is usable in any rifle of 30-06 caliber.
My casual perusal of hunting literature has revealed that even well-thought of, well-designed, effective big game hunting bullets (projectiles) can lose around 30% of their mass on impact. Ammunition for high-velocity rifles for medium or big game hunting sometimes have a means of ensuring the remaining core stays with the remaining jacket so loss of mass does not limit penetration, such as Remington Core-Lokt or Hornady Interlock. But some loss seems unavoidable, even when it is not wanted, even when retained weight percentage is touted as a measure of goodness.
Other bullets are designed to deliberately limit penetration because a cartridge of great power is sometimes used on smaller game due to the need for long range accuracy, not due to the need for more killing power. Or perhaps a farmer wants to use his elk rifle to kill a marauding small predator without unduly endangering local farms and livestock with overpenetration. Such bullets can feature a thin jacket and a soft, pure lead core which is not alloyed with antimony for hardness. They almost certainly would not feature a way of ensuring jacket and core stayed together.
For a time, Remington even produced 30-06 caliber ammunition called "Accelerator" which featured a .22 caliber bullet inside a .30 caliber plastic sabot which peeled away upon firing, which produced 4,080 feet per second-with a lightly jacketed 55-grain bullet designed for hunting smaller game. This ammunition could be used in any 30-06 caliber rifle.
There are also a variety of component bullets (some call them "tips") which can be loaded into empty cases (some call them "casings.".) Lightweight, thinly jacketed bullets are available in the correct diameter for 30-06. They can be driven faster than elk bullets because they are lighter, or, if the shooter chooses, any power level up to full power can be employed. It seems to be important to select a different powder charge for accuracy but much data is seemingly available and published at a variety of power levels- for 30-06 as well as other rounds.
There are .30 caliber bullets (just the projectiles) available for reloading fired empty rounds for handguns which have the correct diameter for reloading 30-06 fired, empty cases. They are even lighter and more thinly jacketed than the bullets for using a 30 cal rifle for varmint hunting. Some posters on hobbyist forums report using them accurately and successfully in their 30-06 rifles, albeit only for smaller game. The point seems to be to adapt a big game rifle to take out smaller pests and predators.
It is surely possible to overdrive such bullets beyond their design limits with a 30 caliber rifle because they are designed for a handgun which can produce 1600 feet per second such as the surplus Soviet Tokarev 7.62X25 TT33 pistol. Some of them are soft point or hollow point bullets and weigh around 85-90 grains, so with the right powder charge, velocities far in excess of standard 30-06 seem possible.
A sporter built from a military-surplus Mauser action (mechanism) was pictured as the suspect's rifle. If such a rifle does not have the military-issue stock with handguard (wooden upper barrel cover) and barrel bands, the stock and magazine subassembly can be separated from the barreled action by removing two screws.
The remaining lead core could have slipped out of the jacket and exited the neck. Its exit speed would have been greatly reduced by the impact. The jacket could have remained within the victim. "Core-jacket separation" is a phenomenon mentioned on many sites and forums.
If the doctor had not gathered up every piece of the bullet and weighed them, then compared them against the suspect's remaining rounds, he may not have realized a portion of the bullet was not stopped miraculously by the victim's neck.
When the shooting literature says "bullet," they usually mean the projectile which comes out of the barrel, not the entire "cartridge" or "round" which is loaded into the gun.
30-06 is an old and still very popular cartridge. Ammunition loaded with a wide variety of bullet types is available which is usable in any rifle of 30-06 caliber.
My casual perusal of hunting literature has revealed that even well-thought of, well-designed, effective big game hunting bullets (projectiles) can lose around 30% of their mass on impact. Ammunition for high-velocity rifles for medium or big game hunting sometimes have a means of ensuring the remaining core stays with the remaining jacket so loss of mass does not limit penetration, such as Remington Core-Lokt or Hornady Interlock. But some loss seems unavoidable, even when it is not wanted, even when retained weight percentage is touted as a measure of goodness.
Other bullets are designed to deliberately limit penetration because a cartridge of great power is sometimes used on smaller game due to the need for long range accuracy, not due to the need for more killing power. Or perhaps a farmer wants to use his elk rifle to kill a marauding small predator without unduly endangering local farms and livestock with overpenetration. Such bullets can feature a thin jacket and a soft, pure lead core which is not alloyed with antimony for hardness. They almost certainly would not feature a way of ensuring jacket and core stayed together.
For a time, Remington even produced 30-06 caliber ammunition called "Accelerator" which featured a .22 caliber bullet inside a .30 caliber plastic sabot which peeled away upon firing, which produced 4,080 feet per second-with a lightly jacketed 55-grain bullet designed for hunting smaller game. This ammunition could be used in any 30-06 caliber rifle.
There are also a variety of component bullets (some call them "tips") which can be loaded into empty cases (some call them "casings.".) Lightweight, thinly jacketed bullets are available in the correct diameter for 30-06. They can be driven faster than elk bullets because they are lighter, or, if the shooter chooses, any power level up to full power can be employed. It seems to be important to select a different powder charge for accuracy but much data is seemingly available and published at a variety of power levels- for 30-06 as well as other rounds.
There are .30 caliber bullets (just the projectiles) available for reloading fired empty rounds for handguns which have the correct diameter for reloading 30-06 fired, empty cases. They are even lighter and more thinly jacketed than the bullets for using a 30 cal rifle for varmint hunting. Some posters on hobbyist forums report using them accurately and successfully in their 30-06 rifles, albeit only for smaller game. The point seems to be to adapt a big game rifle to take out smaller pests and predators.
It is surely possible to overdrive such bullets beyond their design limits with a 30 caliber rifle because they are designed for a handgun which can produce 1600 feet per second such as the surplus Soviet Tokarev 7.62X25 TT33 pistol. Some of them are soft point or hollow point bullets and weigh around 85-90 grains, so with the right powder charge, velocities far in excess of standard 30-06 seem possible.
A sporter built from a military-surplus Mauser action (mechanism) was pictured as the suspect's rifle. If such a rifle does not have the military-issue stock with handguard (wooden upper barrel cover) and barrel bands, the stock and magazine subassembly can be separated from the barreled action by removing two screws.
