Martin Fackler
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Martin L. Fackler is an eminent battlefield surgeon and one of the foremost experts in the field of terminal ballistics. He is a retired colonel in the US Army's Medical Corps.
His most prominent contributions include:
- Developing and testing medium in which the effects of bullet wounds could be simulated. This led to the widespread acceptance of 10C ballistic gelatin for evaluating projectiles and the abandonment of live animal models.
- Establishing effects of projectile design and shape on wounding
- Being the first researcher to demonstrate that yawing and cavitation do not typically cause severe tissue trauma. He conclusively demonstrated that fragmentation was the most effective means of inflicting wounds in a military round.
- Debunking the "kinetic energy dump" theories of terminal ballistics that posited wound trauma being caused by a high velocity projectile that could be made to yaw in tissue and transfer its kinetic energy very quickly. He showed that this manifested itself as the "temporary stretch cavity" in which tissue is pushed by the shock wave following the projectile. However, most internal tissue has enormous resistance to stretch damage and will typically only be damaged by direct contact with fragments.
[edit] External links
- Firearms Tactical Institute's Wound Ballistics site Includes articles by Fackler and others who endorse his views.
- B&T Ammo Labs' collection of Fackler articles
