Evaluating Material Wear in firearms using X-ray Computer Tomography to Establish Mode of Use and Identification

Currently in the UK there is a surge in gun crime using weapons normally classified as antique. For Example the Russian BIKAL 79 has been implicated in several high profile cases. Weapons are deemed antique if they cannot fire commercially available ammunition. However these weapons are modified to allow them to fire modern ammunition. The modification is achieved by machining the bore material or modifying the internal mechanisms. To establish if seized weapons contravene the law there is a requirement for a technique that can measure various aspects of barrel and firing pin geometry and assess wear patterns, establishing evidence of bore resizing and other modifications. Previous work has been carried out at the CPT on establishing the provenance of antiques as well as UKRI-funded research on use of XCT as a metrology tool including the efficacy of extracting surface level data. This previous work suggests that it will be possible to develop XCT methods to allow us to measure gun material, geometry, and surface wear to understand and establish factors such as legality, level of use and determination of ballistic signature.

The PhD program will consist of several elements

- Scanning the material of component parts of recovered firearms
- Evaluating the material wear; striations; residual marking on components
- Establishing the limitations of the XCT process for a range of different ballistic materials
- Developing a methodology for the scanning and evaluation that avoids contact with a recovered firearm
- Developing a comparative model for accurately assessing one firearms against both a control and other firearms or their components

We will be working closely with law enforcement agencies and external companies to secure component gun parts for research and will liaise with the project partners on recovery and measurement of field seized weapons.