Does loose ammo in a can ever get fired by another bullet tip?

[SanDiego619]

I was reading five.five.six's post about his gun blowing up and went down a rabbit hole of exploding stuff and came upon a picture of a 5 gallon bucket of shotgun shells and people commenting how it was dangerous because the primer of one could be struck hard enough to ignite.

Then other people said they had bags of ammo fall on the floor and one of the rounds went off because the primer was hit by another bullet.

Whenever I order bulk ammo it comes loose in a bag and the bullets are pointy. The box always looks like it was rolled down the stairs, do .223 bullets ever go off when they are jumbled up in a box and tossed around? I don't think they'd ship it like that if it happened.

[Quickdraw559]

Always wondered myself. Papa used to keep .22lr in a medicine bottle. Watched him throw it in his sack and throw the sack into the back of the truck a thousand times. Never noticed one pop off...

Now that I’m older, the lead .22lr doesn’t seem like it could dent a case very easily, but FMJ .223 seems a little sketchy. I do have loose ammo in ammo cans though; something about case pressure without a chamber, and holy crap I have a lot of ammo.

[RickD427]

" Does loose ammo in a can ever get fired by another bullet tip?"

No.

[whutsup40]

Thought you lost it all in that boating accident!!

[SanDiego619]

" Does loose ammo in a can ever get fired by another bullet tip?"

No.

It looks like it happened to one or two people here, or they saw it happen. Both times it was .38 rounds. Starting at post 30 https://forums.gunboards.com/showthr...topics/1062149

[jorfern]

sometimes my firing pin wont set it off

[Ivan275]

[Master Blaster]

Yep
Used to work for a store and one of the guys was unloading the truck. He kinda tossed a full ammo can a bit harder then he should of. Heard a pop and it blew a corner of the plastic can out. Nothing crazy but it happened.

[code_blue]

It won't "fire" since it's not pressurized but it does go "pop".

[theLBC]

typical primers have to be hit pretty hard.
i can maybe see it happening if you threw an ammo can out of a moving car, but prolly unlikely. tbh, i don't keep pointing ammo in bulk like that but i do get bags of 9mm fmj in bags from the range and i am not sweating it.

[beerman]

Your chances are the same as your girlfriend getting pregnant from a dirty toilet seat ��

[kcheung2]

For that to happen, it would require not just a pointy tip to hit a primer hard, but also that the struck cartridge be in such a position that it can't wiggle past. Loose ammo in a can is exactly that, loose. When you press on a round, it moves past other rounds, kinda like Scrooge McDuck swimming in his pool of coins. Conceivably it's possible to have a round wedged right in the corner & packed so tight that there's no way it will "give" but that also implies that the round behind it is packed pretty tight also so it would be difficult for it to build up enough momentum to hit it.

Maybe if you took a tightly packed ammo can & dropped it repeatedly, you'd eventually get a hit. But I think you'd end up with a smashed ammo can first.

[ARDude]

I would say it's highly unlikely to happen....but

I knew someone that dropped a ziplock bag of ammo (38 sp) on a concrete floor. One round went off, and the bullet struck him in the arm.

[SanDiego619]

Your chances are the same as your girlfriend getting pregnant from a dirty toilet seat ��

Hey that happened to me! I am a proud father, but my son doesn't look like me at all. Mom must have strong genes!!

[SanDiego619]

I would say it's highly unlikely to happen....but

I knew someone that dropped a ziplock bag of ammo (38 sp) on a concrete floor. One round went off, and the bullet struck him in the arm.

That is another one... so far, the three cases I have read about now, were all 38 ammo in a bag falling or being dropped. Hmm...