Ever dropped a round of ammo and had it go off?

[BCRider]

Last night I was helping sweep up the indoor range at the end of the night. I found a live .40S&W in the empties and put it in my pocket. Later, out in the parking lot I remembered it and took it out of my pocket to give to someone that shoots .40. But it seemed small in my hand so I went to turn it over to look at the headstamp. Well, being cold my hands were less than limber and it slipped out and fell to the ground. It must have landed primer first on a bit of coarse sand since there was a big POP! like a bicycle tire blowing off the rim and I felt a swat at my leg. The bullet was at my feet, and likely the swat I felt, and the case was not to be found.

I've fumbled and dropped ammo before without any concern so as I watched it fall I was thinking "fumblefingers!" but only got to "fumblPOP!".

Anyone else had this happen to them? I know the next time I see ammo falling towards the floor or ground I'll be turning my face away or trying to break it's fall with my foot.

 

[PRM]

I was standing next to an officer on a range some years back who was doing loading and unloading drills with a revolver. One of the .38s he dropped out of the cylinder went off when it hit the gravel where he was standing. Different for sure. That was one time in 30+ years of shooting. I would think the odds are pretty high that a round won't fall in a precise enough manner to bust a primer. But, it can and does happen.

 

[svtruth]

I had a King Cobra that made light primer strikes. There were definite dents in the primers. In the M-19 they went bang.

 

[BADUNAME37]

Never.

I even drove over (with a car) a bunch of 22 bullets when I was young and dumb and not one of them discharged.

Of course, now in my older age, I tend to go by my signature line:

 

[content]

Hello friends and neighbors // thanks for posting this

Having had light strikes I often wondered if they would even go off if dropped.
Gravel would be a good firing pin.
I always cringe when this happens especially when I see someone drop a shotgun shell or clear the shotgun by ejecting them onto a bed and missing.

 

[moxie]

That's a case in point why we ex explosives safety guys teach that you always have to respect arms, ammunition, and explosives. They are totally unpredictable. You could probably throw a round at a rock a thousand times and never duplicate this but it happened anyway. Thanks for sharing.

 

[JoelSteinbach]

I have by accident sent a few loaded rounds of 10mm thru the old Lyman Turbo Pro for about 75 minutes. Nothing happened, I have been sorting my brass a lot better since then.

 

[sniper5]

Dropped one and had it go off? Uh, no. Never.

 

[PO2Hammer]

When a round goes off outside of a gun, it's the case that goes flying, not the bullet.
It was likely the case that hit your leg.
Mythbusters did a pretty good show on it.

 

[BCRider]

Yeah, I figured that this was a one in a million deal as well. The others that have been shooting for years have never heard of that either and the comment was made that they'd likely be talking about this for a good week or more and I'm likely going to be re-named "Lucky" or something else of notariety....

I've even decapped live primers on a press over to one side from the regular loading press wne they went in crooked and crushed or for that one time that I didn't notice that I'd picked up an upside down primer or it flipped just as I picked it up and I didn't notice. With slow steady pressure there has not been any issue at all to doing this. The POP in this case was purely due to the velocity of the round when it hit the ground and being right up and down and centered just right on that bit of coarse sand or small pebble so that it acted just like a firing pin.

Who'da figured?

 

[BCRider]

It may well have been the case but the bullet was definetly rolling around on the ground at my feet. If the case was what struck my pant leg it was just a swipe as it went by and off to some distant place. I searched the area for a good 30 feet around looking for the case since I was/am really curious what it looks like now. But it was not anywhere to be found.

 

[figment]

buddy of mine somehow unloaded a rifle cartridge into a fire pit. Said there was a new hole in his metal roofed car port as a result.

 

[Smoovbiscuit]

Wow figment your buddy is not the brightest fellow. cleansing of the gene pool as I call it.. No BC that has never happened to me.

 

[Gato Montés]

I've always wondered how dangerous a round going off in the open was, if it is indeed possible (clearly).

 

[preachnhunt]

When I was a kid a friend of mine threw a .22 round down on a concrete floor and it went off. I went home.

 

[carbuncle]

Never happened to me, but it's informative to hear reports of what occurs in the unlikely event that it does.

 

[aryfrosty]

Spontaneous discharge?

I saw a video a few years ago of a Darwin Award winner who put a .22lr round across the terminals of a 9v battery. The video lasted about a day before it got pulled but I have always sorta thought that the physics would make the case go flying while the projectile stayed close.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

No, but I had a plasic box of ammo open and on the ground in front of me when I dumped a 1911 mag (no bumper pad), and it struck a primer and set off a .45 round in the lower part of the box. The 230gr. bullet wedged in the bottom of the box, the spent case was gone............

 

[BCRider]

I can laugh about it now. But case flying or bullet flying, if this had hit anyone in the eye the results would have been much like you'd expect from the energy of the pop that was produced. I seriously doubt that it would be enough to break the skin through our winter clothing but a hit to the eye would have definetly been another story.

Obvioulsy the pressure releases from an unchamberd round going off at a far lower level than you get in a gun. But the volume of the POP! was such that I suspect the casing was thrown at a tossed stone like speed. Certainly such a thing hitting someone's eye would be serious.

It's certainly not something I'm keen on repeating any time soon and we all recognized that this was a one shot (pardon the pun ) sort of deal. But it certainly made me curious if it has happened to others. And the stories so far are a nice change from the 9mm vs .357 debates....

 

[IdahoSkies]

My brother and his buddy were out shooting their 22s. They got back in the truck and dumped a pocketful of 22s into the console of the truck and one of them went off and cut through my brother's friend's coat and lodged in the truck door.

 

[BCRider]

That makes me glad that the bullet itself on my round wasn't pointed straight up at the silly face that was watching it fall... namely MINE! Mind you it doesn't take much to push a small bullet like a .22 through a jacket, if it's of light material, and into the light upholstery fabric or naugahyde like vinyl door panels. Still, again if this were to hit something delicate like an eye then the fun would stop right there.

I'm assuming that they dumped the rounds in with quite a toss to hit something that would be capable of denting the rim sufficiently to set off the charge.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

I've never done it myself, but came close once when I ran a .38 Special shotshell through the laundry. It came out of the pant pocket and banged around the dryer drum a few times. Actually, you have to strike the primer directly with a concentration of force - which did obviously happen in your case - so simple impacts with a flat surface, even directly on the base of the cartridge, are not going to set the cartridge off.

 

[EddieNFL]

buddy of mine somehow unloaded a rifle cartridge into a fire pit. Said there was a new hole in his metal roofed car port as a result.

Must have been from the primer.

 

[danez71]

I witnessed 1st hand some one that put a 22lr in his back pocket and ended up falling on his butt while roller skating (two seperate events back to back).

It went off. Besides leaving a 2" red mark on his hiney, it shot an exit hole thru the pocket and I heard it hit a wooden garage door about 15' away.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

We used to shoot at the primers of surplus 30/06 ammo as kids with our air rifles. My experience is that when struck they go off, make a small pop a bit of a flame and the bullet goes about 3 inches at best. The brass case just peals back and the head of the case just sits there.

We found it very anticlimatic.