I'm sure someone retrieved all the bullets and has analyzed them by now.
It would be easy to tell if all the bullets were fired from one rifle, or if there were two rifles involved.
They might get lucky if they could find them, but most high powered rifle rounds are going to almost disintegrate on impact. Those that penetrated soft tissue without hitting bone might still hold a clue, but you might or might now get a sampling of all guns used.
With rifle ammo the copper outer sheath often separates and explodes on impact to any solid material. That outer copper shell is what holds the imprint of the rifling from the barrel that is used to identify the gun used.
Most of the bullet IDs are done on the slower pistol ammo. The bullet from a pistol is traveling slower and can be found intact with rifling marks still in good condition.
The part of the copper shell that fragments is typically the ogive, or pointy end. The butt end is cylindrical and filled with lead and is the part that retains the rifling pattern. It has a good chance of surviving impact for examination, if it is not deformed.
You are the first person I've encountered that is willing to describe a .223 round as "high-powered."
I was a member of the International Wound Ballistics Association, so I'm not talking off the top of my head. For bullets recovered from living targets, what I said was correct. I did say the caveat "if it is not deformed" (as by collision with a hard object). When my grandfather and father went hunting, they would often collect intact (though deformed) bullets from the game they took. The "power" of a cartridge-gun combination is mostly an imprecise popular term. It has more to do with total momentum of the round being fired than with velocity.
I'm sure someone retrieved all the bullets and has analyzed them by now.
It would be easy to tell if all the bullets were fired from one rifle, or if there were two rifles involved.
They might get lucky if they could find them, but most high powered rifle rounds are going to almost disintegrate on impact. Those that penetrated soft tissue without hitting bone might still hold a clue, but you might or might now get a sampling of all guns used.
With rifle ammo the copper outer sheath often separates and explodes on impact to any solid material. That outer copper shell is what holds the imprint of the rifling from the barrel that is used to identify the gun used.
Most of the bullet IDs are done on the slower pistol ammo. The bullet from a pistol is traveling slower and can be found intact with rifling marks still in good condition.
The part of the copper shell that fragments is typically the ogive, or pointy end. The butt end is cylindrical and filled with lead and is the part that retains the rifling pattern. It has a good chance of surviving impact for examination, if it is not deformed.
You are the first person I've encountered that is willing to describe a .223 round as "high-powered."
It's about speed not power. Catching any rifle round in inspectable condition is very rare. Those little .223s splatter on any sort of metal they hit.
I was a member of the International Wound Ballistics Association, so I'm not talking off the top of my head. For bullets recovered from living targets, what I said was correct. I did say the caveat "if it is not deformed" (as by collision with a hard object). When my grandfather and father went hunting, they would often collect intact (though deformed) bullets from the game they took. The "power" of a cartridge-gun combination is mostly an imprecise popular term. It has more to do with total momentum of the round being fired than with velocity.