What's the deal with hot brass?

[DigitalWarrior]

It Burns It Burns

In the Marines I had a couple of burns from my neighbor on the line.

Firing the Desert Eagle .50 while wearing a Polo Shirt was a bad idea. (Shooting on my Lunch Break) The brass was ejected and held against my neck by the collar. I had feelings. It blistered, then scabbed, and it looked like a hickey for longer than I care to remember.

My wife who has been generously endowed by the kind lord has had more than a few .22 shells take up residence uninvited. I have seen actual blisters (but then again have a tendency to look real close).

I have also had .45 shell held in place by my eyeglasses, just under my right eye. Again I had feelings.

I have a fairly high tolerance for hot things, but shell casings can hurt

 

[Randy in Arizona]

I fired an M60 lefthanded one time and had several neat little circular brands on my right forearm from the case mouths.

I don't remember WHY I was firing it left handed, but I was.

 

[Moonclip]

i have scars on my feet from shooting 22lr autos wearing shorts and boat shoes w/o socks and the cases going into the loose heel part opening of the shoe. I have seen people burned from wearing sandals, about as dumb as my shoe story. I have even seen cases go down a low cut shirt and into a womans cleavage(guys and girls, wear a hat and safety glasses and button up)!

CaSES CAN AND DO GET HOT! I have burned my face, gotten the hickey looking burn marks on my neck too. One time I was shoting very hot 9mm para IMI carbine black tip loads out of a Sigma. My friend watching me said the cases were almost glowing they were so hot coming out of the gun.

 

[MoeMentum]

I have 2 burns (now scars) on my leg, from shooting of all things, a .22. Bench shooting a Ruger 10/22 with shorts on, hot shell landing on leg. Yes they are hot, and yes they do burn.

 

[MikeIsaj]

Glad to see all the posts here of catching brass in the eyeglasses. Had that happen for the first time two days ago. Had a .45 case come out of the Sig, over my eyeglass and stop just under my eye. I can't imagine that would be good for my eye. Feels better to know your not alone.

In boot camp started out shooting left handed. First day on the range, had the first three cases ejected down my shirt. Shoot right handed ever since.

 

[Dave R]

Thanks for the explanation, BenEza. Makes sense. I noticed that all these burn stories have one thing in common: semi-autos or full-autos.

 

[Gunsnrovers]

Hot 9mm behind my glasses left a nice scar on my nose.

A bunch of hot .303 out of a bottom ejecting Bren LMG down my cuff was more fun then I deserve and not something I'd recommend for others.

 

[Too Many Choices!?]

.40 cal shell out of my Glock to the afro and forehead a few times....

Not fun! Once found one when I took of my,"ears" !! Shells bounce of the darndest things and find the darndest places ! .223 brass fresh off the ground is still warm to my hardend hands, so I know it would burn softer skin. My AK throws empties so far that I should only have to worry about rebound hits .

 

[walking arsenal]

I once took a well endowed young lady to the range, she wore a low cut shirt. A peice of brass landed.......well you know, i simply paused long enough in my firing to reach over and pluck the offending piece out of it's nest. got a hug for it, kept the brass.

 

[GaryP]

I noticed that all these burn stories have one thing in common: semi-autos or full-autos.

Brass gets hot in revolvers also! Take a .38spl, .357mag, etc and put one round in the cylinder then fire and extract it into the palm of your hand as fast as you can. It will be very uncomfortable. The laws of physics apply to either auto or revolver but due to the nature of a revolver the brass gets to cool longer before being extracted!

 

[Matthew748]

I got a good taste of what hot brass can do to bare skin when I was shooting in a CMP match last year. I got a hot .30.06 case fired from an M1 jammed between my left elbow and my shooting mat while shooting from the prone position. I did not win any awards at that match, but I did get one heck of a blister.

 

[Zach S]

I never had a problem with pistol brass. I always wear a tank top under my (normally untucked) shirt, so that helps a lot. I have had brass not make it past my collar, but I only think its unpleasant. I brush it off once I hit slide-lock, if it doesnt fall of before that.

.223 is a different story though.

Eventually the armory guys jury-rigged metal shields that bolted up to the carrying handle, that helped some.

Bushmaster sells them now. They're probably nicer than the one's jury-rigged by an amorer.

 

[Deadman]

I recently had the missfortune of being stuck on the right side of a Minimi (M249). Brass up side the head, across the mouth, down the shirt...not fun.

 

[Beren]

When I'm shooting my K-31 and my boltguns, I'm proud of the fact that I can shoot, work the bolt, and then catch the brass in mid-air. Its not that hot.

I learned to catch the brass from my K-31 out of pure survival instinct. If I don't catch it, nine times out of ten that smarmy K-31 will try to bean me in the head. And that 7.5mm brass is heavy!!

I've had hot brass get caught in my shirt a few times. No scars. I usually wear loose-fitting clothes so brass tends to simply fall out.

 

[noonanda]

I recently had the missfortune of being stuck on the right side of a Minimi (M249). Brass up side the head, across the mouth, down the shirt...not fun.

The SAW and the 240G both kick that brass out f'in hard. I was a line NCO for a crew serve shoot we did, I got smacked in the leg and ankle by some brass, it hurt like a sumbeach.

My M-1 brass stays hot for about a minute or 2 after firing, even holding it in your hand the brass is uncomfortably hot.

 

[Father Knows Best]

Makes sense. I noticed that all these burn stories have one thing in common: semi-autos or full-autos.

Not me. All of my "burned by brass" stories involve lever action rifles. Of course, I tend to work the lever fast enough that bystanders think I'm shooting a semi-auto, but that's another story....

 

[pax]

So, does pistol brass REALLY come out hot enough to hurt you?

Yes, it can and sometimes does.

When I work as an RO helping to instruct new shooters, I get hit by brass fairly often because I am usually standing at the shooter's right elbow so I can see what their hands are doing and help if needed. Brass doesn't bother me; I always wear a high necked shirt, a brimmed hat and good glasses with side shields. The stuff just bounces off wherever it hits, and I go on with what I'm doing.

But there was a week last summer when the temps around here got into the mid 90's or low 100's, and the humidity was high. During that week, I collected no fewer than four blisters from brass that hit the bare skin on my forearms. And stuck there. Ouch.

The rest of the year, the stuff just bounced off. Something about the high temp & high humidity made the brass meaner than normal.

pax

 

[wrench]

get one in your bra once, (if applicable), THAT'S a dance you gotta see...

 

[entropy]

You just haven't lived 'till you've gotten brass and links from a 60 landing all over you. Never, ever sit to the immediate right of an M60. (Or M249, or M240. Fortunately the M2 kicks 'em straight down.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

I won't go into the stories again; suffice to say that .45 ACP down the collar is bad.

10mm down the collar, on the other hand, well, as Yoda might say:

Dance you will!

 

[1911 guy]

rate of fire

I'll gladly catch the first few rounds out of an AR, no problem. I'll steer clear of the next couple hundred, thanks. Think about the heat transfer. One round gives off heat that is easily absorbed by the metal in the rifle. Every subsequent round is from a rifle that is already heated beyond ambient temp.

 

[pete f]

ONCE MANY YEARS AGO I was invited to a demonstration of a Phalanx CIWS. The R2 D2 shaped selfcontained weaps system that are used onboard ships and so on. A bunch of us were in a contained area near a large body of water. A drone was flown by and the Phalanx system sat idle till the the drone breached the engagement perimeter and then the system twirled, raised the barrels, fired a hundred rounds, allowed the radar to follow the "threat " and then a hose of fire left the barre; as it engaged and destroyed the drone, the sound was not anything you would associate with a gun, instead more like a large industrial milling machine taking the first bite on a big piece of heavy gauge plate. As the drone broke up and pices of it fell, hundreds of geese lifted off the water as they were disturbed by the sound. The CIWS engauged several of the geese that flew in the direction of the phalanx, blowing many to utter balls of feathers.

But to continue on the thread, one of the watchers immediately asked for a piece of brass from the gun as the area was declared safe, and a bright eyed tech ran over to the pile of brass and reached in and grabbed one, and then screamed, shock his hand to which the piece of brasss was now sticking and came running to the VIP area where a table of food and beverages was and he immediately shoved his hand into the pile of ice under the fresh shrimp. and as i was then leaving the area I saw the EMTs bandaging his hand and saw he had hardly any skin left on the palm/

 

[Rock_Steady]

Browning Ma deuce.........

I had the lovely experience once of being in an Army APC as the driver - the M113-A, with the driver at about a 30 degree slant in front of the T.C.'s hatch. Enemy sighted by me, front left. T.C. spun his coupola, didn't have the brass catcher on the MG right.......50cal machine gun, blasting away overhead, all that hot brass bouncing off my helmet and into the back of my mopp suit. 2nd degree burns, hearing my skin sizzle.....If you think that brass don't get too hot, I got some scars to show you.......

 

[Roadkill]

I use a 12x12' heavy vinyl tarp as a shooting mat, this thing came off a duce and a half truck, is very thick. It has small holes all over from hot brass of all kinds. The worst seems to be a Garand.

rk

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Dave R, come down to Texas and I will let you catch brass from my Barrett 82A1 all day long with your bare hands.