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Bullets starting wildfires?

joshb said:
Boy, I feel for you guys out West. Out here on the East coast, we have too much water. The other day we got 6” of rain in an hour. Flooding everywhere!:mad:
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We get 8-9” of rain a year here in western Colorado, 6” at once would relocate most of what’s here into lake Powell!!!
 
A fire was supposedly started by a bullet on our local 1000yd steel range. No way to prove it either way. Luckily the range is surround by forest service and game lands. Somebody spotted it and the forestry folks were there in a heartbeat to put it out. I still dont believe a bullet off steel started the fire. They set controlled burns on the game lands every year, windy as heck and all it does is burn the under brush.
 
At a fund-raising shoot this spring we shut down the range and went to fight a little grass fire. Temperature in low 100's, humidity under 15% and tinder-dry grasses. Bullet deflected off of RR ties and landed in the grass. Hot enough to burn about an acre before we got it put out.
 
rammac said:
No, typical over the counter bullets will not start a fire under typical shooting situations. Tracers are designed to burn and they aren't the type of bullet used by the typical shooter so I don't consider them a reasonable example of how common it is for a bullet to start a fire.

A study was released several years ago that most "experts" claim shows that fires can be started by rifle bullets (the same study posted previously in this conversation). The reality is that in the summary for that study the authors point out that you need a very narrow set of circumstances to make a fire.

"Peat moisture contents of 3-5%, air temperatures of 34-49 °C (98-120 °F), and relative humidity of 7 to 16% were necessary to reliably observe ignitions in the experiments."

They also had to adjust the angle of the steel plate that they fired in to, to be 30 degrees, they fired from only a few feet away (which means that there was far more heat energy available in the bullet fragments) , they only had repeatable success with all copper bullets, and only dried peat was found to work as a combustible.

It was so hard for them to coordinate all of these factors that they almost gave up on the tests because they had a difficult time finding a way to make a fire start. I believe that it's possible to start a fire with a bullet but I also believe that it's extremely rare, nowhere near as common as the anti-gun experts claim.

While the actual Tannerite product might not start fires I have seen fires started with similar products. Tannerite says that the smoke from their product is actually water vapor and not smoke from combustion.
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Not so - believe it or not - where there is smoke and charred remains after shooting at 80 F plus with a relative humidity of under 40 % would indicate combustion. I am no fire expert but have put out several small fires caused by common ordinary hunting and target bullets (no incendiary magnesium, aluminum or sparky stuff, no penetrator) hitting steel. Just think of sparks that easily observed upon bullets hitting steel. Would you believe 3/8 to 1/2 inch deep impact craters in mild steel would be an indication of energy/heat and associated sparks.

Possibly the "authors" need some shooting experience when it is hot and dry. Citation requested.

Be real careful out there.
 
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sounds like nobody here remembers being a kid....... ANY kid knows you can strike rocks together and make sparks

Shooting out here in the left there are lots of fires started by bullets. NOT tracers, NOT steel-core, NOT Tannerite but plain old bullets. Handguns, steel targets and a rock-pit is a good recipe. We tend to stay for an hour after shooting on firewatch.

BTW we've set off hundreds of pounds of Tannerite and never had any instances of nor even hints of fire. We make it in bulk.....Stuff ain't conducive to combustion A'Tall. And bullets don't make it thru the bag so even they can't make a spark! LOL
 
You can see airgun pellets shot against steel splash orange hot in low light. Never started a fire but always careful to watch.
Tannerite is good.
 
I still can't imagine a piece of solid copper or lead could start a fire hitting steel or rock etc ? Lots of good stuff hear, keep it coming
 
alinwa said:
sounds like nobody here remembers being a kid....... ANY kid knows you can strike rocks together and make sparks

Shooting out here in the left there are lots of fires started by bullets. NOT tracers, NOT steel-core, NOT Tannerite but plain old bullets. Handguns, steel targets and a rock-pit is a good recipe. We tend to stay for an hour after shooting on firewatch.

BTW we've set off hundreds of pounds of Tannerite and never had any instances of nor even hints of fire. We make it in bulk.....Stuff ain't conducive to combustion A'Tall. And bullets don't make it thru the bag so even they can't make a spark! LOL
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Off topic but how do you make the stuff? PM me a receipe
 
I have seen sparks on bullet impact when shooting in my gravel pit. had a guy bring over a Ruger Mini-30 that needed the aftermarket magazines adjusted so they would feed right. Got the thing shooting and as it started to get dark that evening I started seeing sparks. Got back to my shop and checked the Russian Wolf ammo...brown painted steel cases and copper painted steel bullets!!!
Didn't start any fires, but I can see how it might.
Fired a metric schitt ton of tracers in my time...no fires from that either, but I know they certainly will. I did burn down about 150 acres of woods once upon a time messing around with U. S. Army "cluster stars". They are the newer illumination flares that have no parachute. They pop out 4 glowing hot balls of white {or red} phosphorus that are supposed to go high enough that they burn out and disintegrate before hitting the ground. They are an absolute blast to play with, turn night into day for about 15 seconds or so. I found out that they don't always burn out on the way down!!!
 
msinc said:
I have seen sparks on bullet impact when shooting in my gravel pit. had a guy bring over a Ruger Mini-30 that needed the aftermarket magazines adjusted so they would feed right. Got the thing shooting and as it started to get dark that evening I started seeing sparks. Got back to my shop and checked the Russian Wolf ammo...brown painted steel cases and copper painted steel bullets!!!
Didn't start any fires, but I can see how it might.
Fired a metric schitt ton of tracers in my time...no fires from that either, but I know they certainly will. I did burn down about 150 acres of woods once upon a time messing around with U. S. Army "cluster stars". They are the newer illumination flares that have no parachute. They pop out 4 glowing hot balls of white {or red} phosphorus that are supposed to go high enough that they burn out and disintegrate before hitting the ground. They are an absolute blast to play with, turn night into day for about 15 seconds or so. I found out that they don't always burn out on the way down!!!
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We used a lot of these in Nam. Especially at night on the lines trying to identify movements
 
muleman69 said:
I still can't imagine a piece of solid copper or lead could start a fire hitting steel or rock etc ? Lots of good stuff hear, keep it coming
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It's all about lowering your probability imo. Thinking. What are you shooting at, where is the target, what is around the target, what could the bullet possibly do (I know this is unpredictable in many ways but still can think about risk mitigation), what is the temperature, etc. I feel that if you are smart about it, you can reduce your chances by a ton. I can think of many other ways fires can be started as well. Granted there is a ___ ton of risk involved if something does happen so that needs to be taken into account as well. I can't imagine if something crazy happened out where I shoot and an uncontrollable fire started, I'd have a stroke on the spot. However, I do practice what I'd consider very safe shooting. I'm not going out shooting willy nilly at random targets. Side note... in Afghanistan we tried starting a fire with cigarettes and gasoline, we couldn't do it and not for lack of effort. I'm sure it's possible and not worth the risk to smoke at a gas station but a for sure example of something that's not likely at all to happen yet you will never see me smoking near fuel, especially a gas station, due to the high associated risk just in case...
 
EE878D5F-BFCC-40CD-A9A9-CB8581E899AC.jpeg Let me shed some light on this,
When the relative humidity (RH) is in the single didgits under a full sun dead grass has a fuel moisture content of ~1/5 of the RH.
At one or two percent fine dead fuel moisture, grass, especially cheat grass burns like gasoline!
Nearly 1,000,000 acres have burned in NV alone this summer. A simple spark will start a fire.

The probability of ignition is at 100% when the temperature is near 100*F and RH is low with direct sunlight

http://www.fbfrg.org/fuel-moisture/1-hour-moisture-content

A view from my office this time of year.
CW
 
muleman69 said:
Has anyone ever heard of or better yet experienced a bullet starting a fire? Buddy and I were discussing this last night as it has been so hot and dry around here almost afraid to sight in hunting rifles
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There was a shooting ban in wa forests recently because its so dry
 
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