OT IIUC there are hundreds of different models of hand guns, under 100 different kinds of ammunition.
And yet on TV, esp. Law & Order, when they find a bullet, they usually know just what model gun it was used it.
Is there much truth in this?
Is there any bullet that is used in only one model gun?
There's probably some exaggeration involved. Here. I've done your homework for you:
Cindy Hamilton
Is there much truth in a crime being committed, the perpetrator apprehended, the trial held and the sentence handed out all within a 47 minute timespan - even as we watch at least one character deal with a personal issue or maybe two characters end up in bed together?
Shortcuts have been employed, details have been left out.
I always get a kick out of the TV detective's leap in logic where "a .38" was used to shoot the victim and since this guy had one, he must be the culprit.
Yup, and that guy who was pulled over for running a stop sign must be the bank robber because witnesses swore the getaway car was a Ford- and sure enough, he's driving one...
For any bullet that is only used in one model gun, I would think no. I know that a 45 GAP cartridge is only used in a Glock and a 500 S&W cartridge is only used in a S&W but the bullets themselves are used in many other guns.
As pointed out there are markings on fired brass that might help identify the gun and markings on spent bullets can identify the type gun and even the specific gun itself.
It's a TV show, get over it. Jack McCoy and Lenny Briscoe do lots of things that don't happen in real life.
There is so much bullshit around forensics and promoted on TV that people actually start to believe it. The reality is if they have the gun they suspect was used and the bullet or casing, they can say if it is a match or not to that barrel or maybe even the extractor or bolt/slide face if it was shot recently but these things wear and if this is an old bullet from when the gun was new, trying to compare to that gun a few thousand rounds later, they are making shit up. That is why Maryland gave up on their "ballistics library". For a few years they required a fresh fired bullet and casing from every gun sold in Maryland. After a few years and millions of dollars spent, they realized it never solved a single crime. It quietly went away. As for your last question, I can't think of one, if that particular cartridge has been available commercially very long. Manufacturers get together and decide on something they want to market and usually they are not going to tool up to make cartridges if there are not enough guns out there that shoot it. They usually come up with a few different platforms first. Custom shops do that sort of thing but those are not usually guns the cops see in a West Baltimore shootout over a drug corner. It takes a while for a designer caliber to hit the mainstream.
That thing about identifying vehicles would be more believable in the good old days when designers could use their imaginations. Wind tunnels lack creativity.
The original Law & Order series lasted 20 years with 456 episodes. It didn't hurt a bit that Angie Harmon and Jill Hennessy were in some of them.
One more fantasy destroyed. (Others have pointed out errors about the law.)
At least the sets are good. A lot are not sets at all, but actual NYC locations.
The episode I played yesterday had three of them leaving the office at the end of the day when the hall was sort of dark, as many episodes end, and for a second in the background, you could see the out of focus shadow of someone emptying a waste-basket. At least that part is accurate.
Back in the late nineties I was in NYC on a business trip. I saw the Medical Examiner van next to the curb and said "Oh cool, someone's dead."
I walked over to see what was going on and realized that they were filming as scene for Law and Order. Lenny Briscoe, Anita Van Buren, Ed Green. They were all there. Off to the side I saw about a dozen people, looking just like me, standing around talking. Extras! So I walked over and stood near them. A few minutes later a guy with a clipboard comes over and says "OK, on my cue, just walk along the sidewalk on the outside of the crime scene tape. Keep going until you are out of the scene."
I'm like "Alright! I'm going to be on Law and Order!"
The clip board guy finishes talking, looks over the group and his eyes stop right on me. He points and says "You! You don't belong here."
All the extras turn to look at me, I wave, say "Break a leg!" and walk away.
So close!
I remember a Montana HP officer bitching volubly when they replaced his beloved LTD Crown Vic with a '92 Crown Vic. Goddamn clown car...
I quit watching the origional McGiver show because of the BS on it. I did start watching the new version just to laugh at the things he does. Same with many other showes. Good for entertainment ,but not much else.
While there may be a few guns that only take one bullet type, doubtful that they would be used in crimes. Not counting on some custom made one of a kind. Like a fiend that is a gunsmith and he makes a muzzle loader that uses modern powder and puts the old muzzle loaders to shame.
The .40 might be okay but an overlooked .40 case gums up the works. The USPSA people like it because it qualifies as a major caliber.
Sorry, I have to laugh.
You're going out there, and you could have come back a star.
The original L&O is an excellent show. I have seen them all, most a few times. Good writing, good production values, good cast, that changed often enough so they were not jumping the shark. It is still a Roadrunner cartoon, just entertainment.
One of the paradoxes of "forensics" is, if you can match tool marks, wouldn't gun #1 and gun #2 out of a particular rifling machine produce very similar rifling? If both had a few thousand rounds through it, wouldn't those minor differences when the barrels were new be far overshadowed by the slings and arrows of a couple thousand bullets going through, carrying whatever dirt was in your pocket when you were carrying them.
Where I believe "ballistics" is when they get to shoot a bullet through the gun, right after the murder shot. Those will match and they will be very unique to that particular gun. When you find a bullet the cops dug out of a wall 5 years ago and do a blind match to a gun with no other lead that way, I call bullshit.
The ADAs and the lady cops were all hot in one way or another but they had one for every fantasy. They did roll the cast around a lot. It started with a typical Italian cop and a super straight DA. Then they went with a DA who would color outside the lines and then a woman, welcomed into the job by Rudy Giuliani and wrapped up with Sen Fred Thompson. The cops circled around Briscoe and they ran a few pretty boys through on their way somewhere else. The criminals ran the gamut from celebrities looking for a cameo to guys who showed up in "The Wire".
Blame the union :-)
If you showed up on camera they would have had to pay you and they didn't have a budget for one more.
I remember when you could tell what kind of car it was just by the tail lights in the dark.
Budgetary concerns. Plus, nobody wants to watch a TV detective sort through a jillion possible suspects before finding the culprit. It seems like the formula is "three solid suspects, and the culprit turns out to be the first one they interviewed and let go, so he/she could endanger another citizen and be heroically caught by the detective".
Cindy Hamilton
Heh. My husband is very resourceful. One year for Christmas I got a MacGyver publicity photo, had a guy at work give it a fake autograph: "<Husband's Name>, thanks for the advice. Mac" and gave it to my husband. He says it's the best thing he got that year. And there it hangs, over his reloading bench.
Cindy Hamilton
That is interesting to know. It was just off the top of my head. Range I shoot at is in PA and state police were practicing there and use the .45 GAP. Another cartridge I thought of is the .50 AE which as far as I know is only used in the Desert Eagle.
I reload and keep it simple too with .357 mag, .44 mag and .40 S&W
Reticent to shoot much lately as I cannot find any small pistol primers with current insanity.
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