The purpose of the work is to determine the advisability of using a skin-muscle flap as an imitator of a human body under a dense cotton target when modeling gunshot injuries resulting from ricochet of a bullet and buckshot when fired from a smooth-bore weapon through clothing. We conducted a ballistic experiment on the formation of gunshot injuries of dense cotton targets themselves, as well as with the underlying skin-muscle flap, formed when a 12-gauge hunting rifle is shot and the subsequent ricochet of bullets and buckshot. As a result of a comprehensive study, the absence of the effect of the underlying skin-muscle flap on the average values of most parameters of gunshot injuries of non-biological targets (p<0.01) was established. The results can be used in planning and conducting of experimental research in the field of forensic ballistics.