Quote:
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Originally Posted by turbonium
FBI firearms expert Robert Frazier explained to the WC that the Carcano was a low velocity weapon: "The recoil is nominal with this weapon, because it has a very low velocity and pressure, and just an average-size bullet weight....This has a low velocity." 3 H 414
What difference is there between a low velocity weapon and a high velocity weapon that you do not understand?
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The part I bolded (emboldened?) is interesting to me, because the #1 reason I hear to 'prove' Oswald couldn't have fired three shots was the recoil of the rifle was so high it would have been impossible...
Ballistics information that I can find for this round show it to have a velocity of 2296 fps with an energy of 1902 foot pounds. This gives the bullet a mass of about 163 grains. The one site I found that gave loading data said that a good starting wieght of the poweder charge was 37 grains, with 38.5 being a max load. The base rifle wieghed 7.5 pounds, and adding another 8 ounces for the scope gives us 8 pounds even. Based on that the felt recoil would be just under 12 foot pounds at 9.76 fps.
The velocity, and bullet weight would be almost identical to the old west 30-30 Winchester.
The 30 carbine used in Korea had a muzzle velocity of about 2300 fps also, but a much lighter bullet.
For comparison, the 30-06 round fired by the M-1 Garand is 168 grains and has a muzzle velocity of 2800 fps. There are few rifles that exceed 3200 fps with 4200 being very near the cap. (.17 caliber... very small bullet). The difference between "high" and "low" is not as much as many people think.
Velocity will drop as the bullet weight increases. It has to to keep the pressure at a safe level.
A bullet is much more likley to be destroyed or deformed as the velocity increases. A slower moving bullet will not expand as much and will be prone to leave a much smaller hole when exiting. If the bullet did not expand at all, there would be no reason for the hole to be any bigger on one side than the other for a low velocity round. A high velocity round would casue more of what is known as hydrostatic shock damage. This is casued when the shockwave of the bullet passes through the largely liquid environment of tissue. The soft tissue is disrupted, and damaged, but returns to it's original position. It is also called the temporary wound channel. As opposed to the hole made by the solid bullet, which is the permanent wound channel.
The bullet recovered... the magic bullet... did not expand at all. This would be consistent with a lower velocity round nosed bullet. Assuming the bullet went through the upper back and came out the neck, a high velocity round would have probably exploded the neck completely.