Can bullets explode?

[artthestampede]

I don't know if this in the right forum, but out of curiosity, can bullets explode say, sitting in a hot car or if they're subject to shock or vibration?


Let me know your thoughts.

[hoozaru]

i was wondering the same thing.
Had 2 loaded magazines in the trunk this summer, cycled crappy wolf ammo for two or three times. Now the heat is almost over, and no accident yet.

[Josh3239]

The dreaded cook off! Yes, it could certainly happen if the cartidge was hot enough. If you fired enough rounds threw a machine gun and heated up the barrel and left a round it the chamber it could go off. You'd have to get it extremely hot though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_off

[AJAX22]

Getting spontanious ammo detonation is almost impossible, theoretically it could happen but it wouldn't hurt anything if it did go off.

I've found ammo thats been baking in the desert sun for years that hasn't gone boom.

[Fjold]

Bullets don't explode.

[artthestampede]

Ok... not bullets but... live ammo..

[grywlfbg]

Mythbusters did this awhile back. They did manage to get rounds to "cook off" when placed into an oven (don't remember the temp but it was 500+F). They also threw a bunch of rounds into a fire (sounded like firecrackers).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(season_6)#Hot_Bullets

So yeah, when sufficiently heated the gunpowder will ignite, but it needs to get pretty freaking hot.

[Josh]

not by just leaving them in a car.

[aplinker]

Ok... not bullets but... live ammo..

OF COURSE IT DOES!! Haven't you seen the movies! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

Nah, it's a myth. They crackle and pop, like people are telling you, but it takes extreme heat.

Extreme heat -- they'll ignite, BUT it's not like they're exploding.

I liked the stuff where they shot at full mags and the rounds just sizzled and burned from being penetrated.

[glockman19]

NO...and if it was hot enough they would pop but the bulet wouldn't do much more than pop off with little or no velocity and would end up within a couple of feet of the spent cartridge.

I think they did a mythbusters on this.

[N6ATF]

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode82

[slick_711]

I've tossed bullets into more than one campfire to clear out the circle so I could have my choice of seats. They'll pop once they heat, and at worst send a shard or two of brass your way (close/turn away your eyes), but they're no real threat.

Heat/cold/vibration will however mess with your powder. Close friends who are very serious IPSC shooters recently related to me an experience when they traveled to the Northwest to shoot in a regional competition and their Socal reloads just kinda "went pop" and didn't make major powerfactor in the 35 degree weather. They put their mags on top of the heater in the truck and voila, shot just fine. They say it was a sight to see, them running back and forth to the truck to reload between stages.

The same goes w/ heat. Rounds won't "cook off" in a trunk, but prolonged exposure will ruin your powder, it just sort of 'decomposes.' It'll still shoot in most cases but won't perform the way good ammo does. Vibration can have the same effect over long term (one of the reasons CCWs suggest you rotate your ammo periodically).

[Josh]

I've tossed bullets into more than one campfire to clear out the circle so I could have my choice of seats. They'll pop once they heat, and at worst send a shard or two of brass your way (close/turn away your eyes), but they're no real threat.

Heat/cold/vibration will however mess with your powder. Close friends who are very serious IPSC shooters recently related to me an experience when they traveled to the Northwest to shoot in a regional competition and their Socal reloads just kinda "went pop" and didn't make major powerfactor in the 35 degree weather. They put their mags on top of the heater in the truck and voila, shot just fine. They say it was a sight to see, them running back and forth to the truck to reload between stages.

The same goes w/ heat. Rounds won't "cook off" in a trunk, but prolonged exposure will ruin your powder, it just sort of 'decomposes.' It'll still shoot in most cases but won't perform the way good ammo does. Vibration can have the same effect over long term (one of the reasons CCWs suggest you rotate your ammo periodically).

Temperature definatly affects the performance of powders, some more then others. 35 degrees is damn cold and will retard the burn rate.

But vibrations do not. If this was true for ammo then from when they make it to when you buy it, most of the ammo you buy would be bad.

The only way vibrations could affect it was if it somehow got all of the graphite coating off the powder that helps regulates the burn rate or somehow breaks down the powder into smaller pieces thus increasing the surface area. (neither of which will happen even if you stick the ammo in a tumbler, which most companies do).

You rotate CCW ammo because of bullet set back, moisture, exposure to the elements and the fact that fresh ammo should be more reliable than older ammo that has pocket lint and god knows what else stuck to/in it.


Just to add, tossing ammo into a campfire to get a seat is damn irresponsible, just because you know to turn your head to shield your eyes from flying brass shards does not mean everyone else is going to.

[Army]

Be assured, the case will come apart during the explosion, much like a firecracker......with frag. The bullet will not attain much, if any, real velocity, and is itself not very dangerous. Even blank ammo will tear itself apart when heated to ignition.

More than a few vehicles over here have caught fire, with the ammo load surviving the flames, so simply sitting in th sun will not raise the temps enough for ignition. If it won't blow sitting in 135F here in Iraq (temps inside trucks can reach 180+), It sure ain'ta gonna blow in your driveway

We used to tape a ball-bearing to the primer of.50cal blanks, then a length of string to the crimped "nose" to act as a tail. Thrown high into the air to fall onto the road or tank pads......oh yes, we scampered far away quickly....the result was as thunderous as the best M80, with a LOT of brass frag pinging off things in the immediate area. If we could find the cartridge base, it usually was just the rim and a small amount of case in a "flower" pattern. -------hey, it was fun

[DRM6000]

Be assured, the case will come apart during the explosion, much like a firecracker......with frag. The bullet will not attain much, if any, real velocity, and is itself not very dangerous. Even blank ammo will tear itself apart when heated to ignition.

More than a few vehicles over here have caught fire, with the ammo load surviving the flames, so simply sitting in th sun will not raise the temps enough for ignition. If it won't blow sitting in 135F here in Iraq (temps inside trucks can reach 180+), It sure ain'ta gonna blow in your driveway

We used to tape a ball-bearing to the primer of.50cal blanks, then a length of string to the crimped "nose" to act as a tail. Thrown high into the air to fall onto the road or tank pads......oh yes, we scampered far away quickly....the result was as thunderous as the best M80, with a LOT of brass frag pinging off things in the immediate area. If we could find the cartridge base, it usually was just the rim and a small amount of case in a "flower" pattern. -------hey, it was fun

sounds like a blast!