Mr. Cunningham. It affects your accuracy inasmuch as it cuts down on your sight radius. Your longer barrel will be more accurate than a shorter barrel, due to the longer sight radius. The reason that rifles are inherently more accurate than a hand weapon is due, in part, to the longer sight radius. That is the reason the farther you can get away from the sight when you are firing a revolver, the more accurate. Lengthening your sight radius will increase the accuracy.
Mr. Rhyne. Based on your experience in your study of these bullets, do you have an opinion as to whether or not they were fired by this gun?
Mr. Cunningham. No, sir; I cannot determine that.
Mr. Rhyne. You have no opinion at all?
Mr. Cunningham. The only thing I can testify to, is they could have, on the basis of the rifling characteristics—they could have been. However, no conclusion could be reached from an actual comparison of these bullets with test bullets obtained from that gun.
Mr. Rhyne. Even though there are a lot of similar markings.
Mr. Cunningham. There are not; no, sir. There are not a lot of similar markings. They are similar. The rifling characteristics, are the same, or similar. But, in the individual characteristic marks, there are not a lot of similarities. There are not sufficient similarities to effect an identification.
Representative Boggs. Stating Mr. Rhyne's question negatively, these bullets could have been fired by another weapon?
Mr. Cunningham. That is correct. Either this weapon or another weapon which has the same rifling characteristics.
Representative Ford. You are limiting that to the bullets now?