Gunshot wounds to the head can be caused by rifled
weapons (e.g. handguns and rifles) or smooth-bore weapons (e.g. shotguns).
The details of such injuries are summarised below; reference should be made to standard texts, including Di Maio (1999), Dana and Di Maio (2003), Cassidy (2000) or WebPath’s online tutorial.
Features of entrance wounds (rifled weapons)
- Circular defect (unless entrance at an angle – then more ‘tear-drop’ shaped)
- Abrasion collar or rim
- Inverted edges
- Stellate shaped in higher velocity weapons, or hard contact over bony parts of the body
- Slit-like or irregular if bullet is deformed or tumbling
- Presence of soot soiling, powder tattooing, stippling etc (range dependent)
- Shallow angled wounds may ‘graze the surface’
Features of exit wounds (rifled weapons)
- Usually larger than entrance wounds
- Irregularly shaped
- Everted skin edges
- No powder tattooing, soot soiling or stippling etc
- May have abraded edges (‘shored exit wounds’)
Features of contact/close range shotgun discharge
- Singing or clubbing of hairs
- Burning of skin
- Smoke or soot soiling in exposed parts of the wound (and in the wound depths)
- Powder tattooing
- A circular or elliptical wound
- No ‘satellite’ pellet holes
- Annular abrasion and bruising
- Wads contained within wound depths
- cherry pink tissues in wound track (due to carbon monoxide causing
- carboxyhaemoglobin/ carboxymyoglobin formation)
histology of gunshot entrance wound
