ASM 275 STUDY GUIDE 2025/2026 ANSWERS AND
QUESTIONS GRADED A+
✔✔outward beveling - ✔✔seen in wounds at the site of a bullet's exit from the body
✔✔keyhole wound - ✔✔Bullet strikes bone on tangent, causing both entrance and exit
wound in the same area
✔✔Bullet wound fracture lines - ✔✔Going fast or high caliber
✔✔incision - ✔✔wound with neat, clean edges that is longer than deep
✔✔Puncture wound - ✔✔Wound that is deeper than long
✔✔Cleft wound - ✔✔Result of combination of both sharp and blunt trauma
✔✔GSW vs Sharp vs Blunt - ✔✔Blunt trauma, wide area, a lot of fractures, hinging,
Sharp Trauam, Waistage, Small hole, small fractures,
GSW Beveling, circular, two wounds
✔✔Single blade - ✔✔One side of wound is straight, other curved
✔✔Double bladed - ✔✔Both sides curved
✔✔Gunshot Wound vs Puncture - ✔✔Puncture, usually Icepick, have conical shape,
not exit wound
GSW, have beveling
✔✔Striations - ✔✔Stripes/lines on bone caused from irregular surface
✔✔wastage - ✔✔Parts of bone that have been removed
✔✔incision wound characteristics - ✔✔V shape cross section
Horizontal Striations
No fractures, hinge, minial wastage
✔✔Puncture wound characteristics - ✔✔Cone shape,
Vertical Striations
,Minimal Fractures and Hinges
Minimal Wastage
✔✔Signs of beheading - ✔✔Whole ass vertebrate cleft wound
✔✔Dismemerment - ✔✔the process of the removal of limbs
✔✔superficial false start scratches - ✔✔Shallow, caused when the blade of the saw is
drawn across the surface of a bone
Typical of hand saw
✔✔False start kerf - ✔✔deeper; caused by bouncing of the saw blade off the bone
during a push stroke
Hand saw
✔✔Kerf - ✔✔the cutaway opening made when sawing or otherwise cutting materials
✔✔Shape of blade - ✔✔Fixed raidus - Circular Saw
Non fixed- Chain saw and hand saw
Striae vary in non fixed
✔✔Hand vs Power saw - ✔✔hand saw rougher
power saw smoother
✔✔animal scavenging - ✔✔1. Scatter bones
2. Break bones
3. Remove and chew bones
Marks on bone, rodent and teeth marks
✔✔Teeth puncutre - ✔✔Tooth penerate bone
✔✔Pitting - ✔✔Teeth dont penetrate bone
Scoring
✔✔Scoring - ✔✔Shallow grooves
✔✔Furrow - ✔✔Deep groove
, ✔✔Burning changes - ✔✔Shrinkage of bone, discoloring based on heat
✔✔Weathering - ✔✔Sunlight causes bleaching, shrinking and warping
✔✔Water Transportation - ✔✔lighter, less dense, rounder objects float away
Heaver, denser, flatter objects do not move far
✔✔Three main elements of firearms that have direct effects on bone - ✔✔- Size
- Construction
- Velocity
✔✔Goals of ballistics - ✔✔- The nature of the trauma may provide evidence as to:
- Type of firearm (handgun, rifle, shotgun, other)
- Characteristics of the projectile (size and composition)
- Position of shooter relative to victim (distance, orientation)
- Sequence of wounds (number, sequence)
✔✔Absence of signs of projectile trauma - ✔✔Absence of evidence of projectile trauma
on bone does not eliminate possibility of projectile trauma to an individual, as it could
have just missed the bone
✔✔Three main types of firearms - ✔✔- Handguns (single projectile) GSW
- Rifles (single projectile) GSW
- Shotguns (multiple projectiles) SGW
✔✔Size - ✔✔The diameter of a projectile and/or barrel of a weapon (from .05" to .5")
✔✔Determining size of a firearm - ✔✔The size of a projective or weapon barrel is
measured in terms of caliber, gauge, or number
✔✔Type of size for different firearms - ✔✔- Caliber for handguns and rifles
- Gauge and number for shotguns (with one exception: .410 bore shotgun).
✔✔Caliber - ✔✔Diameter of bullet or barrel of handgun or rifle measured in hundredths
of an inch or mm.
✔✔Determination of caliber - ✔✔- Determination of caliber is complicated by the fact
that the actual diameter of bullets is sometimes less or greater than that advertised by
their manufacturers
- Shotguns are more complicated because their barrel diameters are measured in
gauges, while the pellets they expel are measured by number
QUESTIONS GRADED A+
✔✔outward beveling - ✔✔seen in wounds at the site of a bullet's exit from the body
✔✔keyhole wound - ✔✔Bullet strikes bone on tangent, causing both entrance and exit
wound in the same area
✔✔Bullet wound fracture lines - ✔✔Going fast or high caliber
✔✔incision - ✔✔wound with neat, clean edges that is longer than deep
✔✔Puncture wound - ✔✔Wound that is deeper than long
✔✔Cleft wound - ✔✔Result of combination of both sharp and blunt trauma
✔✔GSW vs Sharp vs Blunt - ✔✔Blunt trauma, wide area, a lot of fractures, hinging,
Sharp Trauam, Waistage, Small hole, small fractures,
GSW Beveling, circular, two wounds
✔✔Single blade - ✔✔One side of wound is straight, other curved
✔✔Double bladed - ✔✔Both sides curved
✔✔Gunshot Wound vs Puncture - ✔✔Puncture, usually Icepick, have conical shape,
not exit wound
GSW, have beveling
✔✔Striations - ✔✔Stripes/lines on bone caused from irregular surface
✔✔wastage - ✔✔Parts of bone that have been removed
✔✔incision wound characteristics - ✔✔V shape cross section
Horizontal Striations
No fractures, hinge, minial wastage
✔✔Puncture wound characteristics - ✔✔Cone shape,
Vertical Striations
,Minimal Fractures and Hinges
Minimal Wastage
✔✔Signs of beheading - ✔✔Whole ass vertebrate cleft wound
✔✔Dismemerment - ✔✔the process of the removal of limbs
✔✔superficial false start scratches - ✔✔Shallow, caused when the blade of the saw is
drawn across the surface of a bone
Typical of hand saw
✔✔False start kerf - ✔✔deeper; caused by bouncing of the saw blade off the bone
during a push stroke
Hand saw
✔✔Kerf - ✔✔the cutaway opening made when sawing or otherwise cutting materials
✔✔Shape of blade - ✔✔Fixed raidus - Circular Saw
Non fixed- Chain saw and hand saw
Striae vary in non fixed
✔✔Hand vs Power saw - ✔✔hand saw rougher
power saw smoother
✔✔animal scavenging - ✔✔1. Scatter bones
2. Break bones
3. Remove and chew bones
Marks on bone, rodent and teeth marks
✔✔Teeth puncutre - ✔✔Tooth penerate bone
✔✔Pitting - ✔✔Teeth dont penetrate bone
Scoring
✔✔Scoring - ✔✔Shallow grooves
✔✔Furrow - ✔✔Deep groove
, ✔✔Burning changes - ✔✔Shrinkage of bone, discoloring based on heat
✔✔Weathering - ✔✔Sunlight causes bleaching, shrinking and warping
✔✔Water Transportation - ✔✔lighter, less dense, rounder objects float away
Heaver, denser, flatter objects do not move far
✔✔Three main elements of firearms that have direct effects on bone - ✔✔- Size
- Construction
- Velocity
✔✔Goals of ballistics - ✔✔- The nature of the trauma may provide evidence as to:
- Type of firearm (handgun, rifle, shotgun, other)
- Characteristics of the projectile (size and composition)
- Position of shooter relative to victim (distance, orientation)
- Sequence of wounds (number, sequence)
✔✔Absence of signs of projectile trauma - ✔✔Absence of evidence of projectile trauma
on bone does not eliminate possibility of projectile trauma to an individual, as it could
have just missed the bone
✔✔Three main types of firearms - ✔✔- Handguns (single projectile) GSW
- Rifles (single projectile) GSW
- Shotguns (multiple projectiles) SGW
✔✔Size - ✔✔The diameter of a projectile and/or barrel of a weapon (from .05" to .5")
✔✔Determining size of a firearm - ✔✔The size of a projective or weapon barrel is
measured in terms of caliber, gauge, or number
✔✔Type of size for different firearms - ✔✔- Caliber for handguns and rifles
- Gauge and number for shotguns (with one exception: .410 bore shotgun).
✔✔Caliber - ✔✔Diameter of bullet or barrel of handgun or rifle measured in hundredths
of an inch or mm.
✔✔Determination of caliber - ✔✔- Determination of caliber is complicated by the fact
that the actual diameter of bullets is sometimes less or greater than that advertised by
their manufacturers
- Shotguns are more complicated because their barrel diameters are measured in
gauges, while the pellets they expel are measured by number
