Learn from my mistake

[vincewarde]

I have been shooting for over 40 years and reloading almost that long - but I just managed to do something dumb that perhaps someone else can learn from.

Tonight I had a negligent discharge - without a gun being involved.

Like many others - including many commercial reloaders - I package my reloads in plastic bags (in my case the Foodsaver variety). Stick 50 rounds in a bag with a label and you have a cheap way to package your ammo. Never had a problem with it until tonight.

The wife and I are going shooting tomorrow, so after all the other prep I loaded up our 9mm mags while watching TV. Then I set everything by the door so we could load it in the morning. A little while later I noticed that I had forgotten to put one of the unopened bags of ammo into the buck we use for mags, ammo, holster, etc. So I picked it up and on my way to bed, gently tossed it into the bucket which was about 5 feet away.

BANG! Although I had never had this happen, I knew at once what I had done and what had happened. Fortunately, other than my pride, I wasn't hurt and no one else was around.

So, with the whole house now up and AWAKE, we found as much of the case and bullet as we could. Of course, the case basically blew apart between the base and the bullet. The bullet shot up to the ceiling, where it put a very small dent. The case (what was left of it) stayed in the bucket. The primer had a perfectly placed "rim dent" where the rim of another cartridge came together perfectly with the one the exploded.

Now I know why they won't take loose ammo in checked baggage. If they did, the baggage handlers would sure set some off eventually.

So I guess the lesson is: Handle bagged ammo carefully. Remember, there is no physical barrier preventing a round from going off this way if you drop it on a hard surface. If this happened with a rimless cartridge, it is even more likely to happen with rimmed ones.

Another note: The primer was a CCI small pistol - and CCI is considered to be one of the hardest primers out there. This can happen with any primers.

Again, learn from my mistake.

[bubbapug1]

I always get quesy around zip locks filled with 223 rounds.

[AMProducts]

I've seen this happen, twice actually. Most recently, someone was tossing a ziplock of blanks to someone, they missed, the blanks hit the floor and KAPOW! only one of them went off, but it did a good job of spreading the rest of the bag around the shop. Nothing but pride was wounded, but the lesson was learned.

I'm in the process of designing some simple paper boxes (no trays) that I was going to have one of the local paper companies made up, most of them are based off WW2-Vietnam era military ammo boxes which at the time did not use the injection molded plastic trays. Mostly because the trays are too expensive, and most of the manufacturers have a bad habit of changing tray dimensions before you've run out of boxes.

[Corbin Dallas]

There was an incident not that long ago at a gun range where a fired case landed on an opened and exposed box of cartridges where it stuck the primer and caused a ND.

So even boxed ammo can have this occur as long as the conditions are right.

[Low-Pressure]

Thanks for sharing! Glad nobody got hurt.

[vincewarde]

There was an incident not that long ago at a gun range where a fired case landed on an opened and exposed box of cartridges where it stuck the primer and caused a ND.

So even boxed ammo can have this occur as long as the conditions are right.

Wow, that is even less likely than my incident given the lessor mass of a fired case. Amazing.

Thankfully, when this does happen the round is basically a big fire cracker and the case fragments and bullet just don't have much velocity. Is it a hazard? Yes. Is it anywhere near as hazardous as a ND in a firearm? No way.

The interesting thing to me as a former firefighter is that this is basically same thing that happens when rounds cook off in a fire.

[joelogic]

My lucky day. 1/8" either way and kaboom in my reloading press.

[Fjold]

I always carry loaded ammunition in the plastic reloading boxes. I saw that same thing happen over 30 years ago. Once was enough.

[G38xOC]

glad none was hurt by this . did LEO show ?

[bodger]

Thanks for sharing this. You made me realize how much bagged and loose ammo I have in places that could allow this to happen to me too. Gotta get that squared away.
And come to think of it, when I've introduced newbies to shooting, I probably have not properly stressed the need to be mindful of how ammunition is handled and how dangerous it can be.

[beetle]

thanks for sharing -- I've also been using zip lock bags to bring reloads to the range. based on your story I may find an alternate method.

[Sub95]

There is a guy on ebay thats sells factory ammo boxes for about a $1 a box shipped, most of the time he sells 30+ boxes at a time.

[grant22]

Thank you for filling us in. A totally honest mistake that any of us could have made.

[joelogic]

There is some technical term for density packaging. Like its ok to carry a full ammo can but at some empty space % it becomes dangerous. A couple of large ammo companies sell loose bulk pack .223 so it must be safe enough.

[tuna quesadilla]

My lucky day. 1/8" either way and kaboom in my reloading press.

!!!!!!!!!