Adult Female Human Skull .410 Shotgun Wounds BC-196
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The skull is that of a young African-American woman in her early 20's. The cranium was penetrated by two rounds from a .410 shotgun fired at close-range. The right jaw was hit by a third round, directed downward. The coronal and lambdoidal sutures were separated by the blast and the right half of the jaw was shattered. Custom Display Stand available separately. Please see related products below.

The cranium has been reassembled in order to show details of the wounds. Cracks radiate out from each wound, and slight internal beveling is present. The margins are scalloped by the concentrated blast of shotgun pellets. (Trace amounts of lead wipe residue are present in the margins of the original skull.) A few stray pellets penetrated only the outer table of bone, but most lodged in the brain. One complete indentation, 5 mm. in diameter, is visible to the right of the posterior wound. (A higher powered hunting gun would have inflicted much greater damage and a greater muzzle-to-target distance would have resulted in a wider, less consistent wound.)

In her training manual, Karen Ramey Burns says "Shotguns produce entirely different types of wounds. The size of the pellets and the range between muzzle and target affect the size and shape of the wound and the degree of injury."

More about this skull and other trauma can be found in Karen Ramey Burns' book "Forensic Anthropology Training Manual". A new edition is soon to be published and will be available from Bone Clones.