ID bullets with metal compounds

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pengwuino
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Compounds Metal
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the feasibility of embedding unique metal compositions in every bullet for identification purposes. Participants argue that while the idea is innovative, implementing it on a mass production scale would be impractical and costly. Current methods already allow for tracking bullets through batch records, making individual identification unnecessary. The consensus is that creating unique bullets would complicate manufacturing processes without significantly aiding law enforcement. Overall, the concept, though intriguing, faces significant logistical and economic challenges.
Pengwuino
Gold Member
Messages
5,112
Reaction score
20
Ok i got into an argument about the feasibility of this idea. For every bullet ever made from now on, put a metal composition inside of it that is unique to every single bullet produced.

0.09864 moles/g MgS
0.00787 moles/g Ca2S
0.01535 moles/g Cu4Zn3
0.06772 moles/g Ti5Cd2

Bullet cases sold at Wal-Mart in Charleston, West Virginia to Richard Hammonds on 9/12/06.

Was the example "ID". Is this at all possible? Also what was included in the argument is how this would stand up in the real world after being actually fired from a barrel and after hitting a target. Also, for anyoen who has an answer... what are your credentials if you don't mind.
 
Last edited:
Engineering news on Phys.org
Good idea, but don't try to patent it- the trace elements that get mixed in
by chance are already being used to do this.

Bullet makers keep archives of their melts for law enforcement to do this
very thing.
 
Antiphon said:
Good idea, but don't try to patent it- the trace elements that get mixed in
by chance are already being used to do this.

Bullet makers keep archives of their melts for law enforcement to do this
very thing.
Caveat - they would do that by batch. To do it by bullet would be very inefficient, I would think.
 
A melt is an industrial term for a molten batch. (At least it is in the glass business.)
Maybe it's called a "pour" in the metals world.
 
But coudl you create a separate combonation for every single bullet you make (every bullet... billion+, not just every model) in mass productino?
 
You could but it would be expensive and unnecessary.
 
How expensive and how unnecessary on say, a $.05 bullet. WOuld it have any real use in the real world to help stop crime/prosecute people easier?
 
It won't make it any easier than it already is.

If you tell me that 1000 boxes of ammo were sold with the same lead
and 5 of those boxes were sold in my neighborhood, and I have a receipt for
one of those 5 boxes and they pluck one of those bullets out of a terrorists's
head, you can bet your bottom dollar it came out of my gun. You don't need
to track each bullet to figure that out.
 
Antiphon said:
It won't make it any easier than it already is.

If you tell me that 1000 boxes of ammo were sold with the same lead
and 5 of those boxes were sold in my neighborhood, and I have a receipt for
one of those 5 boxes and they pluck one of those bullets out of a terrorists's
head, you can bet your bottom dollar it came out of my gun. You don't need
to track each bullet to figure that out.

Besides, it would be a manufacturing nightmare to even produce unique bullets, let alone try to catalogue the metallurgical composition of each individual bullet.
 
  • #10
brewnog said:
Besides, it would be a manufacturing nightmare to even produce unique bullets, let alone try to catalogue the metallurgical composition of each individual bullet.

Well this guy i know seems to think it would be easy and wouldn't cost much at all and think its akin to DNA testing.
 
  • #11
Pengwuino said:
Well this guy i know seems to think it would be easy and wouldn't cost much at all and think its akin to DNA testing.


Testing would be easy, since you'd only have to do it when there's been a murder. Actually making each bullet from a different alloy would be impossible to do on a commercial basis.
 
  • #12
Yes but unfortunatly we don't know anything that manufactors like the human body does in its uniqueness (sp?)
 

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top