Skip to content

Bearing Surface Diameter

Definition

The diameter of the projectile face in contact with the bone surface at the moment of impact; smaller than the resulting defect diameter due to tensile failure enlargement; the outer-table defect approximates the projectile diameter but is unreliable for calibre estimation.

Related terms

Contact Wound
A firearm wound produced when the muzzle is pressed against or within a few centimetres of the target surface. Characterised by a...
External Beveling
The cone-shaped defect geometry at an exit gunshot wound in bone: the inner table diameter (entry face of the defect) is smaller...
GSR (Gunshot Residue)
Primer-combustion products (classically lead-barium-antimony compounds, now also non-lead formulations) deposited on the bone surface at close or contact range; detected by SEM-EDX...
Internal Beveling
The cone-shaped defect geometry at an entrance gunshot wound in bone: the outer table diameter (entry face) is smaller than the inner...
Keyhole Defect
An asymmetric gunshot defect produced by a projectile striking bone at a shallow angle; one end shows a conventional beveled entry geometry...
Puppe's Rule
The 1994 formalisation of the principle that radial fractures from a subsequent gunshot terminate at fracture lines already produced by a prior...
Secondary Projectile
A bone fragment or other material driven at high velocity through adjacent tissue by the primary projectile's passage through bone; produces irregular,...
Stellate Fracture
A set of radial cracks extending outward from the main gunshot defect, produced by compressed propellant gas pressure radiating under the scalp...
Trajectory Reconstruction
The forensic procedure that integrates the osteological bevel direction, angle-of-impact estimate, and the physical scene evidence to reconstruct the relative positions of...

Explained in

Your journey to becoming a forensic professional starts here.

Practice with mock tests, learn from structured notes, and get your questions answered by a global forensic community, all in one place.