Forensic assessment of a life-threatening penetrating abdominal air gun injury

•Air guns can penetrate skin and able to cause severe, life-threatening injury.•Wound characteristics produced by combustion are missing in case of air gun injuries.•There are only minor differences in entrance wounds created from various distance in case of air gun injuries.•Evaluating penetration depth is the most accurate method of assessing the range of fire in case of air guns, but still has large limitations.•Complex evaluation of all data can help greatly in assessing air gun injuries.