A 38 SPECIAL POLICE REVOLVER WAS USED IN THE STUDY; FIRINGS WERE CONDUCTED IN A SPECIALLY DESIGNED CONTAINER WHICH ALLOWED TRAPPING OF PARTICULATE EFFLUENTS FROM THE WEAPON FOR SUBSEQUENT ANALYSIS. UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE EXPERIMENT, CONVENTIONAL 38 SPECIAL AMMUNITION YIELDED AN AVERAGE OF 5,640 MICROGRAMS OF LEAD PER ROUND AT THE POSITION OF THE SHOOTER. UNDER IDENTICAL CONDITIONS, EXPERIMENTAL AMMUNITION USING JACKETED SOFT-POINT PROJECTILES AND A SPECIAL NONLEAD-CONTAINING PRIMER COMPOSITION YIELDED AN AVERAGE OF 13 MICROGRAMS OF LEAD PER ROUND. THE DATA INDICATE A DECREASE OF THE PARTICULATE LEAD PRODUCED PER ROUND BY A FACTOR GREATER THAN 400. THE BALLISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF AMMUNITION WERE ALSO EXAMINED. THE MANUFACTURE OF NO-LEAD PRIMERS WHICH WILL REPRODUCE THE INTERIOR BALLISTICS OF CONVENTIONALLY PRIMED AMMUNITION APPEARS TO BE WELL WITHIN THE STATE OF THE ART. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT).