Challenges Commonly Encountered with

the Examination and Analysis of

Homemade Firearms and Improvised
Firing Devices
Paul J Murphy
Homemade Firearms and Improvised Firing Devices
Why do people manufacture improvised firing devices
and home made firearms?

• Legislation (strict gun laws)

• Limited or no availability of commercial firearms

• Economical (commercial firearms being very expensive)

• To supply people who can not legally obtain a firearm

Who uses improvised firing devices and homemade
firearms?

• Anyone who can not legally obtain a commercial firearm

• Criminals

• Terrorists

• Gangs

• Political factions
Divided into two main groups

• Improvised/Modified Firearms

• Home Made Firearms

What is the most popular caliber?

• Whatever caliber ammunition is freely available

• Home made firearm manufacturers prefer to use rimmed cartridges since

it make extraction and head spacing less complicated
Improvised and home made ammunition
Materials commonly used for homemade
firearms and improvised firing devices

● Brass ● Steel
● Aluminum ● Sheet metal
● Wood ● Plastic
● Water pipe ● Bicycle frame
● Telescopic car antennas ● Wire
● Barbed wire ● Copper wire
● Nails ● Shoe lace
● Electric tape ● Duct tape
● Clear tape ● Inner tube
● Cable ties
Popular slam fire design
Sophisticated homemade firearms
Crude homemade firearms

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Modified blank firing firearms and air rifles

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Disguised homemade firearms

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Test firing improvised firing devices

• Can be potentially a dangerous practice

• Has to be done with great caution

• Does not consistently produce suitable test fired bullets

Test firing devices and accessories
Bullets from home made firearms

• No rifling present

• Projectiles mostly smaller than barrel diameter

• Desired test fires results not always achieved

Bullets fired from homemade firearms
Comparison microscope images

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BULLETTRAX Images

Raw data a=3, 3D texture

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Cartridge cases and shot shells from
homemade firearms

• Cartridge cases are mostly “blown out”

• Extraction is problematic

• Pierced primers is a common phenomenon

• Blown out/protruding primers is a common phenomenon

Cartridge cases and shot shells fired in
homemade firearms

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BRASSTRAX Images

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Homicide of a 3 year old child with a
homemade firearm

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Homicide of a 3 year old child with a
homemade firearm

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Suicide with a homemade 12 gauge shotgun

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Suicide with a homemade 12 gauge shotgun

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Book published about manufacturing a fully
automatic homemade submachine gun
 Challenges Commonly Encountered with the
Examination and Analysis of Homemade Firearms and
Improvised Firing Devices

Questions??????????

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Unrifled / Smoothbore

Mosaic signature preparation

– Local orientation detection & redressing
– Region of interest detection
Unrifled – Preliminary Correlation Performance

Visual Matching Ratio (VMR): 40/40 (100%)

Digital Correlation Performance: 39/40 (97%)

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