Steel Bullets cause fires

[stitchnicklas]

when i shoot on blm i have a 10lb fire extinguisher with me....

[shy 7th]

The sparks are pieces of steel shaved off and burning. It is identical to starting a fire with flint and steel. So, if you can get a piece of flint or churt to shave a bit of copper or lead off fast enough and with enough friction to ignite the shaving, it could happen. Of course, that is impossible so, it won't happen.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of the bullet being able to shave off bits of steel from the target and ignite those.

I realize lead and copper are both soft metals so I suppose it wouldn't have the same effect as a more rigid material like flint, but from the couple range cleanups I've been to, the steel plates I find on the berms look really battered so I thought I should ask, just to be safe.

[CSACANNONEER]

What truly amazes me is that all ranges allow alluminum tipped AMAXs and other bullets to be shot at steel. A friend of mine took some thermal imaging videos of AMAXs hitting steel and it's scary. Even shooting steel at Angeles, the burn marks are quite clear.

[stix213]

I'd think it would have to be extremely dry for a fire to start in this manner. Up in northern california its hard enough right now to start a fire on purpose when camping, since its been so wet this year.

[CSACANNONEER]

I'd think it would have to be extremely dry for a fire to start in this manner. Up in northern california its hard enough right now to start a fire on purpose when camping, since its been so wet this year.

I know some pretty dry areas in the northern part of the state. california has so many micro climates that it is really hard to generalize and just divide the state in half.

[Sub95]

upper figueroa mountain where everyone shoots, the left side was on fire in the last 2 weeks or so. oh and someone put a chrome hub cap up to the right side at skyline, dumb.

[joefreas]

What truly amazes me is that all ranges allow alluminum tipped AMAXs and other bullets to be shot at steel. A friend of mine took some thermal imaging videos of AMAXs hitting steel and it's scary. Even shooting steel at Angeles, the burn marks are quite clear.

I'm going to search and see if I can find some pictures. I was shooting a steel silhouette that was body shaped. I hit it near the head with an aluminum tipped Amax and it looked like the head was burnt off. If I can find it I'll post it up.

[m98]

I save my steel core ammo for when I really need it only. I just use regular lead jacketed stuff for plinkin.

[idlfiredog]

Steel core Bullets make sparks

Does anyone have a video of steel core bullets sparking off rocks or know where I can view one?

[SVT-40]

It's not actually the "sparks" which cause the fires. It's the spent bullets with the steel cores or jackets. When a steel core or jacketed bullet hits a rock or other hard object it usually stays intact and it's kinetic energy is converted to heat making the steel hot enough to ignite a fire if it comes to rest on anything which could burn. Lead cores or copper jacketed bullets usually splatter and fragment enough when striking hard objects so they tend to not convert enough kinetic energy into enough heat to cause fires.

[rgs1975]

I save my steel core ammo for when I really need it only. I just use regular lead jacketed stuff for plinkin.

Ditto.

[xrMike]

It's the steel hitting something hard/brittle that makes the spark.

This happened a couple times over the years at Laguna Seca, where sparks coming off steel rounds hitting the plates at 300 yards have sparked a fire...



They still don't prohibit steel ammo though. Instead they just "pre-burn" all of the surrounding vegetation at the beginning of fire season. This gives the local fire dept. some practice too.

[paul0660]

If you ever shoot steel bullets at night in the desert you will see the rounds skip off the ground going down range like little fireballs.

For sure.

[CriticallyStressed]

I reloaded some pulled surplus bullets that had bi-metal jacketing (steel alloyed into the copper jacket). After sending about 8 of them downrange into a desert hillside on BLM land (some dry grass and a few rocks) I noticed smoke. I ran downrange and a small fire had started which we promptly extinguished. I too was skeptical but now I check any ammo I'm going to use on BLM land with a magnet first. It's just not worth getting billed for the firefighting effort just so you can shoot cheap surplus ammo.

[paul0660]

Does anyone have a video of steel core bullets sparking off rocks or know where I can view one?