The various steel and magnetic stainkss steel firearms show a range of response in their
applicability to serial number reconstruction. Although a good to very good response has
been detected in most of the firearms studied in this work, it is not clear how completely
such a response can be predicted.
Based on this work, it is somewhat surprising that crime labs do, in fact, sometimes get
very good results using methods with identified limitations. It is not clear is successkl
inspections are the results of optimized material response, whether obliteration attempts
are not of a significant challenge, or a combination of several factors.