[relee]

He's probably firing from the cab. Sounds like he screwed the pooch and lost the brass on this one.

Since they did not recover the brass before this, I thought he was using a bolt action. Now I am not so sure. However, Fredericksburg is near Quantico and Ft. AP Hill, so I would not be surprised to hear they found .223 brass there.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think he's probably using a bolt action, because they haven't found any brass before, and because somebody using a semi-auto would probably have pulled off an extra round at some point in this whole thing. And semi-autos spit brass a considerable distance and in unpredictable directions . . . there's no way this b!@#$!#$ has had the time to police for brass.

Probably he just forgot and cycled the bolt (which becomes pretty much a reflex after awhile) and didn't even notice the brass flew out the truck window. Hopefully they'll be able to catch him from that. It's not just the firing pin imprint. . . they should also be able to trace the ammunition by the "turnings" on the sides of the brass, from manufacture through point of sale. That was the key evidence in the re-investigation of the Sacco & Vanzetti case, BTW.