Microstamping is a laser-engraving process that imparts an identifying number and characters on a primer, case head or body of a bullet when the cartridge is fired. The intent is to associate a spent cartridge case and/or bullet to a specific firearm, and thereby link the owner of that gun to aid law enforcement in its crime-scene investigations. Microstamping bullets, while technically possible, has proven totally unreliable and costly. To this point, microstamping has been primarily focused on the handgun category.
It is interesting to note that the laser-engraving technology and equipment is proprietary. It’s patented and owned by a company called TACLABS, which was founded by Todd Lizotte. He is the only source for this technology. Hence, the entire gun industry would have to purchase the microstamping equipment from TACLABS with no option for competitive sourcing. Knowing this, it makes sense to me as to why this technology has been pushed so hard and why there have been wild claims about its effectiveness.
The physical application of microstamping to a firearm is to laser-engrave a number and other identifying characters on the firing pin’s (or striker’s) head. The technology is also used to engrave what appears to be a gear shape around the perimeter of the firing pin’s tip. This “gear code” serves as a type of bar code to identify the firearm. All of these marks need to be transferred to the primer via the firing pin’s indent. You can imagine how small and fragile this marking is.
A small circular plate that has the same numbers and characters etched into it is embedded into the face of the breech on the slide. When a round is fired, recoiling thrust is supposed to power the transfer of the microstamping to the cartridge’s case head.
A third method is to laser-etch a marking — like a UPC or barcode — in the barrel’s bore that is transferred to the bullet. Proposals have also been made to sequentially microstamp individual projectiles, too. As I learned, this is an impractical scheme from a production standpoint. It would also be unreliable because of the rifling’s engraving and the in-chamber environment. Plus, someone would have to create an unmanageably large database.
https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/microstamping-tie-spent-cartridges-to-specific-firearms/462077
...Rube Goldberg would have loved this....