"Bullet Explodes" in Purse

[1KPerDay]

I also wonder if she had some batteries and change and crap in there. I had my knife, a couple AA batteries, keys and change in my pocket once and somehow the keys got so hot I could feel them through my pocket. I pulled it all out and they were almost too hot to hold.

 

[BCRider]

I dropped a round onto a paved parking surface and it happened to land primer down and apparently onto a coarse grain of sand. It went off with a helluva bang.

I'm new to shooting but the 3 or 4 buddy's that were around me had been into the shooting sports for literally decades more. They had never seen this happen before.

As a result I don't like to jack live rounds out over coarse gravel surfaces either.

It's not so much the pressure as it is the speed and surface area of the impact. A very light but sharp and fast impact from something pointy could well result in this happening.

For example if the purse hit a shelf as she turned quickly and a nail file happened to be hit and connected with the primer I could see it causing the cartridge to fire. It's a long shot of connected events but a the old saying goes "a room full of monkeys all typing randomly for long enough.... ".

 

[JEB]

When I was a little kid I found a .22lr round, brought it home and eventually left in our 1970's shag carpet. My Mom found it with the vacuum cleaner. I'm 43 and I still hear about it to this day

HA HA!!!! im sorry but that just made my day! i can just imagine how my mother would freak out if her vacuum set of a round in her carpet

 

[230RN]

"Not saying it is impossible but it is pretty unlikely."

I read somewhere a long time ago that about one in seven .22LRs will go off when tossed into the air and allowed to fall on concrete. I have no references, though, and no data on "how high" or whether they were tossed with a spin or whatever.

Something for Mythbusters to 'speriment on? Or one of us and youtube it (with appropriate precautions, of course)?

Or trying to set one off with a 9 volt battery?

Still, sitting in a purse...

I wonder if somehow moving the seat against the seat rails might have somehow crushed the rim.

'Tis a puzzlement.

Terry, 230RN

 

[Rail Driver]

Not sayin' "impossible"; but damn near so !

1. Takes some serious impact energy to activate a centerfire primer. ( I.e. the "head" has to contact the anvil with sufficient force to activate the priming compound.) We've all experienced "light primer strikes" due to a variety of causes leading to a misfire.

2. RF cartridges are even more unlikely candidates as mfgs are extremely careful in compounding the priming mixture to insure the correct level of impact sensitivity.

3. I find it hard to believe any round - center or RF - activated outside of the confinement of a chamber can do more than go "poof" imparting near zero velocity to the bullet and far more likely to vent through a brass rupture/split.

4. Modern powders are deflegrant, not explosive, requiring confinement and temp/psi rise to perform. So an "unconfined AD" might result in a fire, but not, IMO, anything that would penetrate even a cloth purse let alone inflict a personal injury over distance through clothing. IOW, this account doesn't pass my personal "smell test" . >MW

I'm pretty sure it's rcmodel that has a photo showing the damage that ammunition (and ammunition parts) can cause when fired or "set off" unconfined (ie, outside a chamber)... Here's hoping he'll post it to this thread.

 

[Hugo]

Static electricity does wierd things.

Perhaps it was spontaneous ignition of the powder directly (the powder ignition was first then it set off the primer, doubtful forensics can tell which went first). Or something hit the primer just right, or static electricity hit the primer just right.

 

[230RN]

Hatcher (Hatcher's Notebook) did a lot of experimentation on cartridges going off in the open. Not much damage, but in one test the cartridge pieces might have caused a nasty bruise, but would not have been fatal. Main danger was from flying bits of brass hitting someone in the eye. Several cases of folks supposedly getting killed by a cartridge going off in the open were debunked in these pages.

There was one case described where a detonating cap in a shovelful of coal went off and killed someone, but caps are filled with very brisant fulminate, not ordinary propellant powder.

Terry, 230RN

REF:

pp 533-540, op cit
It is amazing how many routine and common firearms questions can be answered from the pages of this book.

 

[BCRider]

It would be all but impossible to set of a primer or powder from static electricity. The metallic casing, primer metal and bullet form what is called a "Farady shield" of metal. The static would run around the outer metal and not affect the insides at all. Yes, static can do some odd stuff. But at the end of the day it's still electricity and obeys the laws of nature.

An exposed battery, on the other hand, could make contact through any number of items inside a purse and if the connections were solid enough and the battery a strong enough one the current that flows could heat up the casing to the point that the powder could be set off. Mind you the metal would need to be pretty darn hot for this to happen.

Lots of us that reload have literally crushed a primer if it went in crooked. Yet they do not fire off. Again, pure pressure isn't what causes a primer to fire. It's pressure alright but it needs to be rapidly applied such as a firing pin strike. When you get a fail to fire and look at the pin strike, it's not that deep. Most of the depth seen in fired casings is due to the pressure pushing the case and primer back against the FP. On their own the FP dent is typically half or less than what we see on a fired primer. Further proof that it's more about the speed of the strike than it is the actual pressure.