Slightly when viewed by the human eye. Its got some material missing from the base, and is distorted in shape, to be sure.
However, none of the wounds attributed to this bullet account for what your photo documents. Seven wounds, one of which included a break of Connolly's (spelling) arm...and the "tip" isn't deformed?
I have no explanation for the damage to this bullet as your photo demostrates. I do know that after personally firing thousands upon thousands of round I don't buy the "magic bullet" theory for a minute.
Maybe there is a as yet unknown or unremarked upon cause for this "miraculous" bullet...but I haven't seen or heard one yet that casues me to think otherwise.
Thanks for the pic, btw.
Maybe there is a as yet unknown or unremarked upon cause for this "miraculous" bullet...but I haven't seen or heard one yet that casues me to think otherwise.
Consider this, especially the section entitled Why not Experiment? about 3/4ths of the way down the page.
Then you clearly haven't read Posner's "Case Closed" yet. Every aspect of the bullet and the wounds is covered, along with the relevant ballistics and physics. It does a great job of reconstructing the events rather like an episode of "CSI".
The short form is that the bullet passed through the thickness of two torsos (JFK then Connally) hitting only soft tissue, which slowed it down a lot and caused it to tumble. By the time it hit Connally's rib, it was *sideways* (as proven by Connally's exit wound under his nipple, which was "slot"-shaped and nearly as wide as the bullet was long). It hit Connally's rib on its *side*, which accounts for the somewhat flattened look of the final bullet.
It tumbled as it exited Connally's chest and hit his wrist *butt-first*, breaking the wristbone and compressing the base of the bullet.
So given that the bullet's *tip* never hit anything but soft tissue, the good condition of the tip is hardly surprising. And while a full-velocity FMJ bullet will shatter or be seriously deformed when it hits bone, by the time the so-called "magic bullet" hit bone it was traveling less than half of its muzzle velocity. Tests on cadavers reveal that lower-velocity bullets of the same type do indeed resist deformation while still having enough energy to break bone, and on average end up in *better* shape than the not-so "pristine bullet" of the JFK case.
All in all, there's nothing "magic" or even really unusual about the wounds it caused and the condition it was left in.
That's the quick summary -- see Posner's book for far more detail, tests, and analysis.