While most forensic departments rely heavily on computers in their work, the shooting range located in the basement of EKEI's Tallinn headquarters rather resembles a workshop. The long, soundproofed room is filled with various types of bullet traps, ranging from wooden walls and sand barrels to a large water tank.

"This is a very traditional field. Firearms and ammunition don't fundamentally change in their nature," says Berit Cavegn, a firearms expert in the technology department.

In the adjacent room to the shooting range, EKEI stores its firearms collection, which currently consists of around 1,600 items. The collection includes classic hunting rifles, revolvers and automatic weapons, as well as unusual, modified firearms. According to Cavegn, the collection does not represent all firearm models found in Estonia; rather, it mainly comprises older or improvised weapons that have been assembled by hand.

"We generally approach these with great caution. We assume that all firearms that come into our possession are defective," Cavegn notes.

Measure nine times, shoot once

When a crime is committed, all firearms, ammunition and their components found at the crime scene are handed over to the firearms experts in the technology department. According to Cavegn, the department also handles various other items classified under firearms legislation, such as warning, signal, acoustic and gas weapons. Additionally, she examines night vision devices, optical sights, thermal cameras and other accessories.

"Our work involves clarifying all possible circumstances related to firearms," the expert explains.

For instance, the department must determine the distance from which a victim was shot. "There might be questions about whether the firearm can be discharged without pulling the trigger. This can happen in hunting accidents," Cavegn adds. If a cartridge case is sent in, they need to identify the firearm it was ejected from. If a weapon is also found at the scene, the technology department's job is to determine whether the recovered bullet or cartridge case could have come from that firearm. If gunpowder residues are present inside the weapon, samples are taken for analysis.

"The most challenging question to answer is when exactly the last shot was fired," the expert notes.

To uncover the circumstances, various tests are conducted. In some countries, forensic experts start by firing the weapon before examining it. At EKEI, however, the first step is to thoroughly inspect the firearm that arrives. "If necessary, we completely disassemble it to ensure everything is safe. Only then do we conduct test firings. We encounter so many broken, poorly maintained and poorly stored firearms that it would otherwise be dangerous for us," Cavegn explains.

The shooting range is equipped with a variety of tools for test firing. "These include bullet traps that stop the bullet without causing any deformations," the expert explains. After a test shot, the expert examines the markings left on the bullet. If a bullet recovered from the crime scene is also available for comparison, a microscope can be used to determine whether the markings are identical and whether they were made by the same firearm.

Bullet traps come in various designs and materials to suit different needs. For example, a long metal tube filled with Kevlar stands against one wall, while another wall features a water-filled metal tank the size of a small van.

"Firearms leave microscopic traces on bullets. Materials like Kevlar or water stop the bullet without adding any scratches or other marks to its surface," Cavegn explains. In other words, these bullet traps allow experts to retrieve undamaged bullets suitable for comparison.

The back wall of the shooting range is made of wood and riddled with bullet holes. "Wood ensures there's no risk of ricochet. Our own safety is important, too," Cavegn points out. Along the wall are two sand barrels at different heights.

"We use these for tracer and explosive or incendiary rounds," the expert says. Tracer bullets can be identified by color-coded markings on their tips or bases. According to Cavegn, some tracer bullets ignite mid-flight, making their trajectory clearly visible. "We wouldn't fire these into a wooden wall, but sand effectively cuts off oxygen access, ensuring everything stays safe for us," she explains.

Playing with Legos out of the box

The firearms collection in the adjacent room serves multiple purposes for the experts. "For us, cartridges are like everyday tools – like pens in some offices," Berit Cavegn jokes.

First, ammunition linked to a criminal offense might be sent to the department. In such cases, a suitable firearm is needed to determine whether the ammunition is even capable of being fired. Second, the experts might receive firearms with identifying marks removed. "We can come here, place those firearms side by side with our collection and see if the submitted weapon resembles any known model," Cavegn explains.

Occasionally, a firearm is sent in missing a crucial component required for firing, such as a firing pin. "If we have that model in our collection, we can take out the firing pin from our firearm, insert it into the questionable weapon and check whether it was functional or not," the expert notes.

The most time-consuming and labor-intensive cases involve situations where a suspect's home contains a room full of potential firearm components. The task then is to determine whether these are parts of a firearm and, if so, what kind of firearm they belong to.

"The most interesting challenge is the so-called 'Lego question' – can these pieces be assembled into a functional, operable firearm?" Cavegn adds.

Since firearm parts like screws, springs and washers are often small and intricate, linking them to a specific weapon can take significant time. "That's when we have to play our 'Lego games,' fitting the pieces together and testing whether they can actually fire," the expert explains.

A test shot must be performed with every firearm sent for examination, whether it's a 150-year-old pistol or a pen modified to function as a weapon. "The 'Made in Estonia' category is quite diverse," Cavegn remarks about the latter.

While a firing pen is a classic James Bond-esque example, modified pipes are much more deceptive, according to the expert. "They look like leftover materials from a plumber's toolbox. But then we notice a firing pin, a cartridge chamber and space for standard firearm ammunition," she explains.

According to Cavegn, working as a firearms expert requires constant out-of-the-box thinking, especially when dealing with improvised weapons. "We don't know how the individual intended to use the device or what their exact goal was. We have to deduce all of that from experience or intuition," she explains.

For example, when testing homemade weapons, they start with smaller ammunition to ensure safety, gradually moving to larger rounds if necessary. "Sometimes, we have to take a step back and think about what we can even do with the item. If nothing else, we might be able to rule out certain possibilities – and even that provides useful information," Cavegn notes.

According to Cavegn, Estonia is a very safe country compared to, for example, Sweden, with relatively few shooting incidents. Most of the weapons examined in forensic investigations are either found items or those connected to drug-related crimes.

"Right now, the whole of Europe has been dealing for several years with the modification of blank-firing and signal weapons," Cavegn adds. These firearms are inexpensive and the internet is full of instructions on how to modify them. "We're conducting a small study on them here. We measure velocity and muzzle energy at distances of one, five and ten meters," she explains.

As modified signal weapons are increasingly showing up in forensic labs across Europe, the goal of Cavegn's research is to contribute some scientific literature on the subject.

Although the field of firearms is generally conservative, Cavegn highlights the rise of 3D-printed weapons as a significant innovation. "These are already common in neighboring countries, and we will inevitably start encountering them as well. This will require extensive retraining for us," she notes.

Unlike traditional firearms, which are made of hard metal and leave marks on softer bullets, 3D-printed weapons are softer than the bullets they fire. This effectively turns conventional forensic examination methods on their head.

"We're already preparing for this. We are in contact with international colleagues in European countries where these weapons are already widespread, and we are leveraging their experience," Cavegn says, outlining the future direction of their work.

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