Dropped Live Ammo Can Detonate

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  • Kirk Freeman

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    DRob

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    And, in the spirit of safety warnings, a .22lr round will detonate if you use it to replace a fuse in your car. Everybody's heard a similar story, I took an injured person report from exactly that. It was originally broadcast as a man shot. Small piece of brass stuck in the genius's shin.
     

    T.Lex

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    Mar 30, 2011
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    Good thing it wasn't .45 or everyone in the store would've had their souls trapped in a horcrux.
     

    GIJEW

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    Mar 14, 2009
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    Dang it! Now that this has gone viral, the manufacturer's lawyers will have them stop offering economy priced bulk boxes of loose ammo
     

    cbhausen

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    Feb 17, 2010
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    Kind of makes you wonder what would happen if one of those thousand round cases was to be dropped, say, a story or two. Seems to me like as much as these get thrown around during shipping we would hear a lot more about it happening so I would call the chance of this happening infinitesimally small.
     

    snowdrifter

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    Apr 1, 2011
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    Next to Atterbury
    The case reads 'Federal' but that box looks like WWB... Now I'm confused... Dang .40! :dunno:

    Sounds like it was just a handful of mixed rounds in a leftover box. From the article: "the customer had several loose rounds of ammo inside the factory ammo box, however, it was not a new factory box and there was no plastic sleeve inside the box."

    I've always wondered if something like this could start a chain reaction of sorts, and set off other rounds in the same box. Apparently not.
     

    STEEL CORE

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    Oct 29, 2008
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    Fishers
    You do not have to tell me, in 1981, while serving in the US Army, as a Military Police Sergeant stationed with the Second Infantry Division at Camp Casey Korea, I had to verify a soldiers pistol was clear and that he was turning in the correct number of ..45 auto rounds from his magazine at the end of his shift.
    The soldier handed me his GI .45 pistol, and I inspected that it was clear, but before I could give it back to him and check his ammo "BOOM", a round had rolled off his open palm, hit the ground just right and detonated between us. I have no clue where the bullet went, it didn't go in me it didn't go into him.
    It did cause some contusion, as some who came running thought we had a ND.
    Nope, the shell casing on the ground split like a banana peel was all the Officer of the Day, needed to see.
     

    HoughMade

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    Oct 24, 2012
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    Does that count as an ND?

    Naw...it looked like an accident to me...not negligence.....

    MassiveUnequaledIrishsetter-max-1mb.gif
     

    Expat

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    I confess to having dropped a case before while carrying them to the basement. I guess I was more lucky than I imagined.
     

    HoughMade

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    Oct 24, 2012
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    Valparaiso
    Regarding the heating of bullets (1:30):

    [video=youtube;9zTi3NzMhrA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zTi3NzMhrA[/video]

    I often use the "bullet in the furnace" method of cross examination.
     

    amafrank

    Marksman
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    Jan 18, 2012
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    Hagerstown
    Look on youtube for some videos of ammo being shot at, dropped, crushed, tossed in fires and other destructive testing. Amazing what it will handle without going off. For the record, none of the ammo shown in any video I've seen has detonated. It may go off but there is a big difference between detonation and deflagration. Nitrocellulose powder will detonate if conditions are right but it won't if dropped. It takes a high order detonation to set it off high order. Just being ignited by the primer or fire or whatever isn't detonation. Normally in a fire or other non firearm situation the case will pop the bullet out, you get some flame and the bullets won't even penetrate the box. With a detonation the case would be shattered.

    Frank
     

    Michigan Slim

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    Jan 19, 2014
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    I've seen a round go off from being dropped. it was a Federal rimer. The rim of another cartridge hit it just right when they hit the ground. No injuries. Found the case. no bullet.
     
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