Firearms are a leading cause of violent injury and death. Most crime-related shootings and fatalities within the United States involve low-velocity, medium-caliber or large-caliber firearms, such as .380 Automatic Colt Pistol (ACP), 9 mm, 0.40 Smith however, the neck of the casing is tapered down to contain the 0.17 diameter projectile. In contrast to the 0.22, the 0.17 HMR is considered a high-velocity round and is touted as an excellent choice for hunting small game and eliminating varmints. There is limited literature documenting deaths and wounds from these high-velocity, rim-fired, small-caliber bullets. Herein, we describe 2 homicide cases where 0.17 HMR caliber bullets were involved in lethal outcomes.
Tran et al. (Wed,) studied this question.