I'd Like to Hear Everyone's Thoughts on This

[5string]

Do bullets really "go off"?

 

[AssMan]

I saw that. Freaky sh!t happens, I guess.

 

[Uncle Duke]

Please Mr. Noir, if you're going to be a spokesperson? You can do better.

They're cartridges.

 

[md77]

Yup, was down scoring targets one day, everyone else (including another instructor watching everyone to ensure my safety) was about 25 yards back on the line. All of a sudden, I hear a round go off behind me. Surprised me enough to have me moving and drawing and clenching. One of my guys gets on the radio and tells me all is good so I start breathing again and walk back up. Someone was loading a mag with rounds from his pocket and dropped a round. When we picked the pieces up you could see the indent in the primer from a small rock in the asphalt that was sticking up. It does happen.

 

[outrider58]

The guy at the range was an idiot. Those are my thoughts.

 

[Jimgoespewpew]

My understanding is that without the barrel to concentrate and aim the exploding forces of combustion, the bullet poses very little danger to anyone or thing.

 

[gorgeman]

saw it happen 2x round was dropped on asphalt bullet ended up 6 feet away

 

[slsc98]

…Someone was loading a mag with rounds from his pocket and dropped a round. When we picked the pieces up you could see the indent in the primer from a small rock in the asphalt that was sticking up. It does happen.

EXACT same thing happened to myself and 3 other instructors loading up mags w Federal AE .40 cal., standing around some bleachers. Also asphalt. It was more of “pop” than a bang. I kept the jagged remains of approx 60% of that case on a shelf in my office for years and now I am wondering if it is in a boxfullacareercrap somewhere here in the hacienda …

 

[RRomig]

Was at a shoot and a piece of lead off a steel target hit the primer of a shotgun round that was in a belt around a woman’s waist. It went off and caused no injuries and very little damage. As mentioned above without containment to focus the energy theres not much to fear.

 

[Sundazes]

I have seen cartridges go off. They go pop. With nothing to pressurize the gasses, it usually will not do much. A stupid person I know (not me) would throw rounds in a fire to see what happened. They weren't compressed so it was unremarkable.
Same reason NOT to quantities store ammo in a sealed fire safe.

 

[outrider58]

My understanding is that without the barrel to concentrate and aim the exploding forces of combustion, the bullet poses very little danger to anyone or thing.

Never thrown live ammo into a campfire? They just go phhhhhttt! You'd be hard pressed to even hear it.

 

[outrider58]

I have seen cartridges go off. They go pop. With nothing to pressurize the gasses, it usually will not do much. A stupid person I know (not me) would throw rounds in a fire to see what happened. They weren't compressed so it was unremarkable.
Same reason NOT to quantities store ammo in a sealed fire safe.

It's like C4. If it isn't ignited in a restricted space, it just burns. No boom.

 

[lazarus]

My understanding is that without the barrel to concentrate and aim the exploding forces of combustion, the bullet poses very little danger to anyone or thing.

Only if you have eye pro on and you aren't holding it clenched in your fist.

The case coming apart can still send a piece of brass moving fast enough to cause some serious eye damage if it hit you right in the eye. It is enough to puncture your skin. Not enough to penetrate inches deep or anything like that, but it'll give you a cut and lodge. NOT what I'd want going in my eye!

If you had it in your fist, it would probably blast some skin off and cause some trauma. Not nearly enough energy to take fingers off or mangle them. That said, I would NOT want to be holding a 338LM in my first if it went off. Let alone a 50BMG. That might be enough to take some digits off.

A 9mm just doesn't have much energy, but a magnum cartridge is roughly equivalent to a small firecracker.

A steel case would probably be more dangerous if it came apart. Not sure if it would, or would be more likely to just punch out the bullet. Anyway, brass is fairly soft, so it tends to rip apart rather than fragment, so there usually aren't a bunch of fragments if one goes.

To the video, freaky, but sometimes stuff happens. If the anvil was already compressed a bit more than it should have, and the rim of the case landed just right. Bang. Which I assume is exactly what happened. An overly sensitized primer and a rim landing right on it from a couple feet above it. Having had brass come down on me from someone else's pistol (sometimes that someone's might have been mine) and land on my head, I'd rather avoid that. Not that it hurts bad, but sometimes it stings and not from heat.

 

[Michigander08]

I am very conscious of ammo handling. In the range, I often have a box of ammo laying around just like in the video with one exception: I always push the plastic tray back into the box to protect the primers. It was always my suspicion that something will hit it by accident.

I think indoor range is plain stupid, but we don't have a choice. How often the ejected empty cartridges hitting you on the head, your goggles, your ear protection, or landed on the back of your shirt. It is the number one reason I hate shooting indoor.

 

[lazarus]

Never thrown live ammo into a campfire? They just go phhhhhttt! You'd be hard pressed to even hear it.

With bullet pulls in the wintertime from "misfires" I pickup at the range sometimes, I do NOT reuse the powder. I am willing to reload the case and occasionally reuse the bullet too if it is a pistol round and something common looking like a 115gr or a 230 or whatever. I don't tend to reload stuff hot anyway, so pretty hard to screw that one up bad. Anyway, I dump the pulled powder into a small piece of paper or toilet paper, wrap it in a bundle and toss it in my wood boiler. I wouldn't toss hundreds of grains of powder in there at once, but a few to a few dozen grains, depending on what was pulled, meh. I can hear it. It is basically a just audible sizzle that lasts a second and flares up the fire a bit. Tossing an oil soaked paper towel in there is a TON more energy released at about the same rate.

Like yesterday I put a jug of canola oil back in the pantry and managed to knock it over and the lid hit the baseboard and knocked it off. A lot of cursing and fast grabbing it up later and I still had a good third cup of oil to clean up with paper towels. Waste not, want not, those suckers went right in the wood boiler (hey, I read the directions not to do that. Warnings are for the peasants! :-) ).

But I am not stupid enough to toss all of that in there at once. A bit at a time. Burns REAL hot. Takes a modest fire to a firebox raging inferno for a solid minute with what is probably 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil on 3-4 sheets of paper towel. Rinse and repeat 3 times for it all to get burned.

 

[lazarus]

I am very conscious of ammo handling. In the range, I often have a box of ammo laying around just like in the video with one exception: I always push the plastic tray back into the box to protect the primers. It was always my suspicion that something will hit it by accident.

I think indoor range is plain stupid, but we don't have a choice. How often the ejected empty cartridges hitting you on the head, your goggles, your ear protection, or landed on the back of your shirt. It is the number one reason I hate shooting indoor.

2nd hand story, but Cresap about a decade ago the reason they have the rules they do on which lanes you can shoot MLs as well as having your powder covered except when actively reloading is because someone with an AK right next to someone with a ML dropped a spent case right in to an open container of BP and it was hot enough still to light it up. Merriment ensued (except maybe for those RIGHT there).

 

[outrider58]

I am very conscious of ammo handling. In the range, I often have a box of ammo laying around just like in the video with one exception: I always push the plastic tray back into the box to protect the primers. It was always my suspicion that something will hit it by accident.

I think indoor range is plain stupid, but we don't have a choice. How often the ejected empty cartridges hitting you on the head, your goggles, your ear protection, or landed on the back of your shirt. It is the number one reason I hate shooting indoor.

I was shooting my ML at the range the other day. I have a small metal tool box I carry all my tools, powder, primers, etc. Before each shot, all my powder and primers go back into that box and the lid is closed. Over cautious? Maybe, but I don't like leaving things to chance. I started out in life, young and dumb. I don't want to finish that way.

 

[outrider58]

Who remembers that old picture of the tobacco pipe blown apart in a guy's pocket by a loose .22 round? I've been trying to find it. No luck though.

 

[My Toy]

Please Mr. Noir, if you're going to be a spokesperson? You can do better.

They're cartridges.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Biggfoot44]

My understanding is that without the barrel to concentrate and aim the exploding forces of combustion, the bullet poses very little danger to anyone or thing.

The bullet has minimal energy as a projectile , but up close is shrapnel from the case .