Are you talking generally ie when NB/JB were out shooting or as an aid to the murders? If JB was responsible would he want to run the risk of the abu (what does abu mean?) carrier getting blood or other incriminating evidence on it?
I think there are too many unknowns ie how many cartridges in how many boxes and whether there were any hanging around other than those on the kitchen worktop. Even if we knew everything the permutations are infinite.
If SC was responsible and loaded the magazine from the gun cupboard and then reloaded where did she do this eg on the floor in the den by the gun cupboard, NB's desk, on the settle or some other place? Either way I would expect to maybe find a small pile somewhere in the vicinity of the gun cupboard. It seems odd to me she would load the magazine at least three times by returning to the gun cupboard and then everything was returned to its normal place. Or was it? How would we know if she grabbed a load of bullets and some were found elsewhere ie some location she used to reload.
What state was the ammo/gun cupboard in when EP found it? Was the door open or closed?
That looks a horrible mess behind the door (staircase S2) and is that rising damp on the wall? I think someone said there was an ammo carrier hanging on the wall. Something hanging on the wall, to the left, no idea what it is.
Mike and others have made up that the ammo carrier and ammunition were all over the house. The reality is that the only ammunition was in the closet and in the kitchen next to the telephone.
The closet was closed the crime scene officers went through it generally removing the shotgun and some other things including the ammo bag thus noticed the ammunition but did not look through everything so didn't notice the scope or moderator. They didn't take the ammunition they just put it back thus David found it when he went through the closet. One would think that they would want to take every firearm, bullet and firearm related item but they didn't until essentially forced in September to do that.
50 bullets is a lot of bullets so taking one box is more than enough to reload from whether you are target shooting, shooting vermin or planning to kill people. So I don't see the carrier ever having been used to walk around with multiple boxes of ammunition.
It is clear to me that the killer emptied one box, then loaded 5 rounds from the other box and took that box out to reload further from using a further 20 from it. The killer could have left it in the office to reload from or could have taken it to the kitchen we have no way to know. Maybe Jeremy dumped it out by the phone after beating Nevill unconscious. Pulling individual bullets out while wearing gloves would be a big hassle so dumping them out would be a lot easier.
As for only 95 rounds being used the 8 months prior to the murders what that denotes is that the weapon wasn't used regularly like Jeremy contended to police during his interrogation. Of course Jeremy didn't initially claim it was used regularly he initially told police it wasn't used a week to fortnight before the murders. After police described AP as the last known user and for it to have the moderator and scope attached he changed his story and claimed he and Nevill both repeatedly used it the week leading up to the murders and claimed during that week Nevill repeatedly removed and reinstalled the scope and moderator.
In all likelihood 20-30 rounds were used for zeroing the rifle, 50-90 for target practice and perhaps 15-20 for shooting vermin if it ever was used to shoot vermin- if used to shoot vermin it was so rare that no one at the farm ever saw Nevill or Jeremy use it for that purpose. The limited use explains why it still looked so new when Anthony saw it.
Making up that he and Nevill used it multiple times a day is just further evidence that he had something to hide because you don't make up lies for no reason. This particular lie was to pretend that Nevill would often remove the moderator and scope to pretend that it is reasonable for him to have found the weapon with the scope and moderator already removed. The reality is that he removed the scope himself prior to the murders because it would inhibit accurate close quarter aiming of the weapon, and used the moderator to commit the murders then removed it and put it away and made up the story of leaving it out without the moderator attached so no one would look for it. He didn't want police to know he is the one who did it though so he told various lies including initially saying the gun didn't fit in the closet with the moderator and scope attached so they needed to be removed after each use. When this was proven untrue he changed to saying it didn't fit in its case with the scope and moderator attached but Nevill purchases no case for it. Ultimately he came up with the tale of Nevill repeatedly using the weapon the week before the murders sometimes putting it away with the scope and moderator attached other times putting it away with them not attached. Jeremy claimed he also used it so that is how he knew but he just used it however he found it he didn't bother to attach or remove anything.
These lies were all aimed to conceal he removed the scope in order to commit the murders and used the moderator to commit the murders but then removed it after.
