As I understand it, the technology to match a bullet via the grooves the barrel leaves on a bullet was around in the late 1950's, but it was never widely used until later, once there were lasers to analyze the grooves.
Here is a good article on individualization of bullets -- i.e., the ability to trace one bullet to the batch of bullets, or to a suspect who has said batch of bullets, what have you. Spoiler alert: didn't get swinging until the 1960s.
Well, I can give you examples from reputable mystery fiction of the period:
"Curiosity had naturally been aroused, and in three-quarters of an hour had been satisfied, when a park cop had found Keyes' body behind a thicket some twenty yards from the bridle path in the park, in the latitude of Ninety-fifth Street. Later a .38-caliber revolver bullet had been dug out of his chest. The police had concluded, from marks on the path and beyond its edge, that he had been shot out of his saddle and had crawled, with difficulty, up a little slope toward a paved walk for pedestrians, and hadn't had enough life left to make it." - "Bullet for One", Rex Stout, 1951.
"I'll be glad to save you the trouble and maybe throw in a few extras. He was killed between eleven-thirty and three o'clock, shot once from behind, with a cushion for a muffler, with a .32 revolver. That's from the bullet; we haven't found the gun." Before Midnight, Rex Stout, 1955
( ... )
"Forensic ballistics" may get you some better results. There's a Wikipedia page on ballistic fingerprinting, not a term I'm familiar with but it may be a US usage.
The wiki page links to pages on Calvin Goddard and the St Valentine's day massacre and it appears forensic ballistics was far enough advanced in the 1920s to link bullets to guns.
So yes, forenisics was far enough along in the 1950s to look at the grooves (striations) in bullets, although cartridges cases are easier to identify.
A bullet or cartridge case can only be linked to a specific firearm, if that fire arm is available for test firing. So the bullets can't be traced to the gun, the gun would be required before the link was made.
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As I understand it, the technology to match a bullet via the grooves the barrel leaves on a bullet was around in the late 1950's, but it was never widely used until later, once there were lasers to analyze the grooves.
Here is a good article on individualization of bullets -- i.e., the ability to trace one bullet to the batch of bullets, or to a suspect who has said batch of bullets, what have you. Spoiler alert: didn't get swinging until the 1960s.
Reply
"Curiosity had naturally been aroused, and in three-quarters of an hour had been satisfied, when a park cop had found Keyes' body behind a thicket some twenty yards from the bridle path in the park, in the latitude of Ninety-fifth Street. Later a .38-caliber revolver bullet had been dug out of his chest. The police had concluded, from marks on the path and beyond its edge, that he had been shot out of his saddle and had crawled, with difficulty, up a little slope toward a paved walk for pedestrians, and hadn't had enough life left to make it." - "Bullet for One", Rex Stout, 1951.
"I'll be glad to save you the trouble and maybe throw in a few extras. He was killed between eleven-thirty and three o'clock, shot once from behind, with a cushion for a muffler, with a .32 revolver. That's from the bullet; we haven't found the gun." Before Midnight, Rex Stout, 1955 ( ... )
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The wiki page links to pages on Calvin Goddard and the St Valentine's day massacre and it appears forensic ballistics was far enough advanced in the 1920s to link bullets to guns.
So yes, forenisics was far enough along in the 1950s to look at the grooves (striations) in bullets, although cartridges cases are easier to identify.
A bullet or cartridge case can only be linked to a specific firearm, if that fire arm is available for test firing. So the bullets can't be traced to the gun, the gun would be required before the link was made.
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