Home fire, what happens to the ammo?

[chim-chim7]

I was thinking how will handgun ammo explode if in a fire? I am not stating the obvious guys. I mean since it is not under high pressures from being captured inside a barrel. Would the brass just rupture outward and the bullet just kind of pop out and fly a short distance? I keep my ammo in a safe just for the record, just curious.

[ke6guj]

Would the brass just rupture outward and the bullet just kind of pop out and fly a short distance?.

this.

[Vacaville]

This was on a Mythbusters episode recently.

Ammo that is not in a gun will explode, but will lose much of the power because the energy will not be confined to a single direction by the chamber and barrel. The case will fly backwards with as much force as the bullet will fly forwards. On the Mythbusters episode, a round didn't even have the energy to pierce the glass on the front of an oven (can't remember the caliber, but I think it was a rifle round). An unfired bullet chambered in a gun however, will fire with all the same force as if you had pulled the trigger.

In a nutshell, if you have the bulk of your ammo in a safe, you should be OK.

[verapakill]

I know that when I was in the fire department we wouldnt go in to the house until the ammo stopped exploding or the house was almost gone due to safety. After the fire the fire marshal would usually take the rest of the ammo and dispose of it.

[chim-chim7]

You guys are awesome. Thats what I was thinking. A action with a opposite reaction.

[Cali-Shooter]

This was on a Mythbusters episode recently.

Ammo that is not in a gun will explode, but will lose much of the power because the energy will not be confined to a single direction by the chamber and barrel. The case will fly backwards with as much force as the bullet will fly forwards. On the Mythbusters episode, a round didn't even have the energy to pierce the glass on the front of an oven (can't remember the caliber, but I think it was a rifle round). An unfired bullet chambered in a gun however, will fire with all the same force as if you had pulled the trigger.

In a nutshell, if you have the bulk of your ammo in a safe, you should be OK.

I remember in a Mythbusters episode where they threw a bunch of live ammo in a campfire to see what would happen.
The ammo exploded like firecrackers, and none of the bullets got propelled significantly enough to be a threat, but instead, the shell casings all popped, and became like shrapnel to anything nearby.

[iareConfusE]

In that situation, I would imagine the brass actually being more dangerous than the bullet, as the bullet has more mass. Chances are it would go off, and the brass may or may not fling in a random direction, but the bullet probably won't be going very far.

[Synergy]

As a fireman you should be more concerned that if the FD shows up and ammo is cooking off, we cant tell if its in a box or barrel. We will fight the fire from a distance, which means all that will be left of your home is the foundation.

My dept has had a fireman shot after entering a house on fire. A guy killed his wife, set the home on fire, laid in wait and wanted to kill the firemen that came in to put it out. Our chiefs now are a little spooked when it comes to ammo going off in a fire.

[jak77]

This was on a Mythbusters episode recently.

Ammo that is not in a gun will explode, but will lose much of the power because the energy will not be confined to a single direction by the chamber and barrel. The case will fly backwards with as much force as the bullet will fly forwards. On the Mythbusters episode, a round didn't even have the energy to pierce the glass on the front of an oven (can't remember the caliber, but I think it was a rifle round). An unfired bullet chambered in a gun however, will fire with all the same force as if you had pulled the trigger.

In a nutshell, if you have the bulk of your ammo in a safe, you should be OK.

They used .22LR to .50BMG, with a few sizes in between. NONE of them went through the glass on the windowed door or the metal, even the 50 cal. I was also dumb enough once to throw a few .22 into a campfire, nothing happened but it was kinda scary.

[Falstaff]

In fact Mythbusters concluded that small arms ammo exploding in a stove/fire was not even close to lethal, Might break the skin, might hurt your eye but no signifigant danger. (I already knew that though because I too was dumb enough to throw handfuls of shells in a campfire...

Another thing they proved was that it is NOT lethal when bullets fired straight up come down, they showed that the bullets didnt even have enough energy to break the skin (that old thread about that issue here on Calguns got all the old timers totally fired up as you can imagine...)

[Captain Crunch]

Another thing they proved was that it is NOT lethal when bullets fired straight up come down, they showed that the bullets didnt even have enough energy to break the skin (that old thread about that issue here on Calguns got all the old timers totally fired up as you can imagine...)

i dont know man .... Manswers and 1000 Ways to Die said otherwise

and some numbers

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1199/can-a-bullet-fired-into-the-air-kill-someone-when-it-comes-down

[caldude]

I keep my ammo in a safe just for the record, just curious.

You really don't want to keep too much ammo in a safe. Safes are generally air-tight, to keep the things inside from burning. However, if it gets hot enough to cook off ammo, that expanding gas has to have somewhere to go. If it can't escape, then the safe could end up blowing up from overpressure. A lockable cabinet that is not air-tight is a better storage place.

[glockman19]

In a fire ammo will just "cook off" go pop as the casing and the bullet detach due to the powder burning and expandng. There is little to no velocity as the energy forces both components in opposite directions. because the bullet is heavier than the case the case usually has more energy.

The mythbusters episode answers the OP's question:

[stitchnicklas]

i store my ammo in a "ammo locker" in the garage in a fire cabinet

[GlockBlocker]

Funny, I came here to the forum today to ask a related question. In the summer, it's hot here and I was wondering about having a box of ammo in my truck box. It's one of those metal tool boxes that sits up against the cab in the bed of the truck.

Looks like on this mythbusters clip, they got the powder to ignite at 450-500 F.

If it was 110 F outside, I'm sure it would get a little hotter inside the box, but definitely not as hot as their oven.

Is this unsafe?