Purposes were twofold: to develop a feasible ICPMS method for bullet lead analysis and to observe the range of variability in elemental compositions for bullet lead from diverse sources. The first purpose was significantly aided by a reduction of the lead concentration by precipitation, while the second purpose was demonstrated by the application of numerical correlation analyses to the data. Results showed good reproducibility and sensitivity were obtained. No bullets from different sources had similar elemental signatures, whereas very different signatures could be found within a single box of bullets. Numerical criteria were developed to separate matching bullets from all different source bullets for the subject population. 22 references, 6 tables, and 5 figures