QUICK FIRING.

6.  The object of the following experiments was to fire a sufficient number of shots in rapid succession to cause the animal to fall to the floor.  In case the animal did not fall within ten shots, to kill it by knocking it in the head with a hammer.  The calibers used were the 0.476, 0.455, 0.45, 9 M/M and 7.65 M/M.

9th Animal:  Cow, weighing, approximately 950 lbs.

Blunt-pointed bullet from Colt’s Revolver, Caliber 0.45, New Service.

9:46:30 A.M.  Animal shot through lungs from left to right; fell to the floor at the sixth shot.  Hemorrhage was free from one of the perforations in the right side.  The animal was very much excited and kept jumping from side to side until she fell to the floor.  Death occurred at 9:49 A.M.

POST MORTEM:  The lungs were perforated by six bullets.  The bullets were distributed in the lungs away from the main vessels and the amount of contusion surrounding the channel tracks was very extensive.  There were five perforations in the right side of the chest, some of the bullets having fractured the ribs and others going into the interspaces.  Five perforations were also found in the left side, one of them through the eighth rib.  Two of the bullets fractured the above mentioned rib, the others going into the interspaces in the near neighborhood.  Four bullets were recovered under the skin; the others were lost.  The bullets showed considerable deformation at the point, in two instances forming sharp cutting edges.

10th Animal:  cow, weighing, approximately 950 lbs.

Full jacketed bullet from Luger Pistol 7.65M/M.

9:57:30 A.M.  Animal was shot through the chest from left to right, ten times; the animal did not fall.  Owing to a hitch in the working of the pistol, there was an interval of one minute between the third and fourth shots, and a short interval between the eighth and ninth shots, due to reloading.  The other shots were fired in rapid succession.  The animal was more or less excited during the firing.  At 10:02 A.M. she was killed with the hammer.

POST MORTEM:  There were three perforations in the left lung near the edge of the posterior lobe, showing marked contusion; not near so great, however, as in the previous case.  The margin of the posterior lobe on the right side was also perforated.  The right lung showed four perforations.  Six perforations were found in the chest wall on the left side, and some of these were large, indicating perforation by more than one bullet.  There were six perforations in the chest all on the right side.  Seven of the bullets were recovered under the skin on the right side and one was lodged in the eighth rib.  Four of them were more or less mushroomed at the point and four only slightly so.

11th Animal:  Cow, weighing, approximately, 1100 lbs.

Full jacketed bullet from Luger Pistol 9 M/M.

10:15 A.M.  Animal was shot from left to right.  There was an interval of one minute between the second and third shots, due to a hitch in the working of the pistol.  At 10:18:15 A.M., when the animal had been shot eight times, there was a short inverval on account of reloading the magazine.  Two shots were fired through the abdomen; at this time the animal was bleeding from the mouth.  After twelve shots had been fired the cow was still standing and had to be killed by the hammer.  Ten shots were fired through the lungs and two through the abdomen in this experiment.

POST MORTEM:  There were four perforations in the right lung and seven through the left lung.  The perforations in the lungs were principally away from the main vessels.  The amount of contusion was well marked around the channel tracks but was not as great as was found in the case of the 0.45 Caliber Colt’s Revolver (ninth animal).  Two bullets perforated the paunch; the intestines were uninjured.  Six bullets were recovered, three practically undeformed, two slightly dented at the points and one slightly mushroomed.

12th Animal:  Bull, weighing, approximately, 1100 to 1150 lbs.

Bullet from Colt’s Revolver, Caliber 0.476, New Service.

10:35:30 A.M.  Animal was shot through the chest from left to right; he struggled a great deal and coughed.  The animal seemed to be very much shocked and distressed by the first shot and became more so until the sixth shot, when he fell to the floor.  Death occurred at 10:38 A.M.  Air issued from the lung through the perforations in the chest wall, made by this large caliber, so that the rhythm of breathing was strikingly observed by the condensed vapor.

POST MORTEM:  There were three perforations in the right lung; the amount of contusion of hematoma was the most extensive yet seen.  Three of the bullets were recovered, two of them set up and one undeformed.

13th Animal:  Bull, weighing, approximately 1150 lbs.

Cupped (so-called “Man-stopper”) bullet from Colt’s Revolver, Caliber 0.455, New Service.

11:00:30 A.M.  Animal was shot through the chest from left to right and up to the fifth shot the firing was done in rapid succession.  Between the fifth and sixth shots there was an interval of one-half minute and an interval of one minute between the eighth and ninth shots.  Ten shots were fired through the chest and two through the abdomen.  At the tenth shot the animal began to fall and two shots were fired rapidly through the abdomen while the animal was falling.  He showed perceptible shock at every shot.  Death occurred at 11:05 A.M.

POST MORTEM:  Seven perforations were found in the left lung and two in the right lung.  Three fragments of bone, two of them an inch long, were extracted from the left lung.  Three bullets were found in the right lung and one in the left lung, all of them set up.  The edge of the cup on two of the bullets was turned back irregularly, showing that in all probability they struck a rib.  The amount of contusion surrounding the seven perforations in the left lung was apparently not as great as was found in the animal where the 0.476 Caliber had been used and where only three perforations were found, (12th Animal).  Two bullets were found in the paunch; these bullets were mushroomed to about .70” caliber.  So far, this is the only bullet with which we have experimented, which shows mushrooming while traversing soft parts only.

S U M M A R Y.

The experiments in cattle demonstrate that shock effects, and destruction of tissue, go hand in hand with sectional areas of bullets, rather than with their velocities.  This is exemplified in the tests with the small and large calibers, in the series of shots preceding the QUICK FIRING experiments, and it is markedly shown in the latter.  In the Quick Firing it will be noted that the animal fell to the ground in each instance when shot with the 0.476, 0.455 and 0.45 lead bullets; and in neither instance when shot with the 9 M/M. and 7.65 M/M. jacketed bullets.

The mushrooming and deformation of the lead bullet doubtless adds to the shock effects, and also to the great contusion of lung tissue noted.

EXPERIMENTS UPON HORSES.

7.  The shooting into horses was done as follows:  The animals were shot with the 0.45 Caliber Colt’s Revolver, carrying the blunt-pointed bullet.  The bullet was made to enter the skull about two inches above the eye and the same distance away from the median line on the corresponding side.  The barrel of the weapon was placed on a line ranging downwards and backwards, with a view to traversing the base of the brain or the floor of the fourth ventricle, the most vital of the brain centers.  In each case the animal dropped to the floor as soon as shot and death was almost instantaneous.  The hide having been removed, the carcass was next quartered, and each of the four quarters was fired into for the purpose of noting the effects of pistol and revolver bullets upon the soft and hard bone of the horse.

Examination of the plates, the Skiagrams being still incomplete, shows that the joint ends of bone are uniformly perforated by all the bullets tested, with the possible exception of the “man-stopper.”  It will be seen, in one of the illustrations, that this bullet lies deformed against one of the joints.  The bullet traversed a large mass of flesh before it reached the bone, otherwise it would have caused an injury to the bone substance not unlike that seen in man.  Injury to the hard substance of bone by all of the projectiles tested is naturally the same as found in the human skeleton.

The effect of the explosive bullet, which was fired into the horse, and the only result recorded with this bullet, cannot fail to interest those who have read the effects of explosive bullets per se.  Prior to the revelations of x-ray evidence it was not possible to give a correct picture of a wound that to most military men is purely a myth.  The dispersion of the pieces of bullet and bone fragments as exhibited in the plate are not unlike those seen in hard bone injuries from lead or partially jacketed bullets, except that the picture is more suggestive of the effects of a true explosion.  So far as known to the Board, this is the first and only attempt to show the effects of an explosive bullet.

S U M M A R Y.

The effects of pistol and revolver bullets on the bones of the horse may be stated to be identical to those on the skeleton of man.

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