AK bullet (7,62 × 39 mm) ricochet off flat, wooden targets; A forensic-based study

The ricochet behaviour of AK bullets (7,62 × 39 mm), one of the prominently reported bullet type in recent shooting incidents worldwide, has been examined on a range of different wooden surfaces in this study. The critical angles of AK bullets for teak, Jack wood, mahogany and pine were reported with close values ranging from 9.9 to 13.3- degrees, suggestive of being a valuable reference that can be used during AK bullet ricochet-related shooting investigations with similar conditions. The study also highlighted a significant phenomenon against the existing understanding on the wood hardness and the critical angles of bullets. The widths of the AK bullet wipe marks generated on the wood surfaces were highly consistent, regardless of impact angle, allowing an effective approximation of bullet caliber. Bullet tunnelling effect were also observed with pinewood samples in this study. The study also further highlights the great variability of bullet ricochet phenomena and the challenging nature of using the theoretical and experimental results relates to wood ricochet studies for shooting reconstructions.