Bullets starting wildfires?

[Jimmy James]

It rains every other day here, Eastern NC and the RH is so high in the summer you can wring moisture out of the air. Maybe thats why we dont get more wildfires.

 

[Mulligan]

It rains every other day here, Eastern NC and the RH is so high in the summer you can wring moisture out of the air. Maybe thats why we dont get more wildfires.

Exactly correct!
CW

 

[dcali]

Regarding tannerite, I have no idea if it combusts or not. I’m no chemist (and it’s not legal to assemble in my state). But... when mis-used (put inside a tv or whatnot) I’d have to think that the destruction of whatever you put it in could cause a spark (and an injury).

 

[Liven The Dream]

Ft. Dix M-60 Range 1967 or 68
We lite the woods up.

 

[geraldgee]

I seen it at Ft Benning maybe 10yrs back on the old civilian range - a couple times actually.

 

[sundance]

Eastern Colorado slipped into extreme fire danger in July and some of the wildfires were blamed on tracer rounds. I think people used the terminology "we were drier than a popcorn fart". Monsoon season now here.

 

[Prose]

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

I have personally started a wildfire shooting tracers out of machine guns. Ended up shutting down the Alaska Oil Pipeline for 1/2 a day

 

[hikfromstik]

My good friend caught a grass field on fire here in Tennessee shooting tracer rounds at dusk a few years ago . It was a big to do in our community. It took a bulldozer and fire department to put it out . Luckily our local wild fire fighters got their quick and the corn field north of the fire was spared . My friend didn't get in trouble, but got a firm talking to by the fire chief. Needless to say , he doesn't shoot tracer rounds anymore for the light show .

 

[alinwa]

Off topic but how do you make the stuff? PM me a receipe

Google 'binary cold packs' and that should get you off and running

I'm not trying to be evasive but 40yrs of blowing stuff up has taught me to be careful with info, I never provide enough...... and tannerite is serious stuff, true HE not "pipe bomb" stuff

BTW, THANK YOU for your service.

 

[#40Fan]

Eastern Colorado slipped into extreme fire danger in July and some of the wildfires were blamed on tracer rounds. I think people used the terminology "we were drier than a popcorn fart". Monsoon season now here.

Don't forget Fort Carson.

Live firing on some of the hottest days, catches the prairie on fire, destroying multiple houses.

I'd take an idiot that didn't know better over a government entity.

 

[NorCalMikie]

Went to the range one afternoon. One of the "local military rifle shooters" was shooting some of his surplus ammo. I cut my trip short and headed home. Went back the next morning and the hillside was BLACK.
Come to find out, armor piercing ammo caused the fire. You never know with "old" mil surp ammo.
Our range was shut down for a few days last week. Small fire up the road a piece and it being in the 100s*+ they figured it best to close the range down till things were in better control.
We're in the middle of the Mendocino Complex Fire area (Ranch fire and River fire) so no use pushing our luck.

 

[Downhill]

When I was 19 in the eighties, a friend and myself had targets nailed to a mesquite stump. We were peppering them with our newly acquired SKS's and Norinco ammo ($2.00 a box!). Had a round pass through the stump and a dry wheat field next to us caught fire. Cost us $1,500 back when the both of us barely had 2 nickels to rub together. So yes, a round can start a fire in the right conditions.

 

[clunker]

There was a shooting ban in wa forests recently because its so dry

Yep! WA State has forbidden all shooting on DNR lands until further notice. My gun club isn't on DNR lands, but was shut down last week because a couple guys shooting hand guns grazed some rocks and set the range on fire. Temps were in the high 90's, and humidity was about 9%. That was with normal ammo, and no steel targets are allowed. We're praying for rain over here.

 

[muleman69]

Google 'binary cold packs' and that should get you off and running

I'm not trying to be evasive but 40yrs of blowing stuff up has taught me to be careful with info, I never provide enough...... and tannerite is serious stuff, true HE not "pipe bomb" stuff

BTW, THANK YOU for your service.

Just curious about the components? And thank you for thanking me

 

[muleman69]

Went to the range one afternoon. One of the "local military rifle shooters" was shooting some of his surplus ammo. I cut my trip short and headed home. Went back the next morning and the hillside was BLACK.
Come to find out, armor piercing ammo caused the fire. You never know with "old" mil surp ammo.
Our range was shut down for a few days last week. Small fire up the road a piece and it being in the 100s*+ they figured it best to close the range down till things were in better control.
We're in the middle of the Mendocino Complex Fire area (Ranch fire and River fire) so no use pushing our luck.

I see the fire is the biggest on record . The state has been calling me for dozers and water tender to report down there. BE SAFE

 

[muleman69]

Yep! WA State has forbidden all shooting on DNR lands until further notice. My gun club isn't on DNR lands, but was shut down last week because a couple guys shooting hand guns grazed some rocks and set the range on fire. Temps were in the high 90's, and humidity was about 9%. That was with normal ammo, and no steel targets are allowed. We're praying for rain over here.

Wow hand guns and lead bullets,thats unreal never would have guessed

 

[Brians356]

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.

I posted a link to such a study on this forum a few years ago. It is definitely possible to start a fire with conventional copper/lead bullets, but as you point out the conditions need to be hot (> 90f) and dry (< 15% RH), and there needs to be combustible material present within inches, or a few feet, of bullet impact. However those factors perfectly describe much of the arid West in summer midday. Then bullets striking steel or stone (rocks or even decomposed granite in soil) can create sparks, or launch tiny shards heated by high-energy impact.
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[alinwa]

I lived in Minnesota from age 9 to 22yrs or so, so my "formative years" regarding firestarting. And I will say that right now, today, you drop me naked in MN with no matches and I will get a fire going.

I CANNOT do that here in WA where I live now...... in fact last summer we were camping up near Mt St Helens and I bet my kids a hunner' dollars that they couldn't start a fire. 7 young mens and womens got involved, aging from 9yrs to 35yrs and while much smoke was puffed, no flames resulted.

BUT...... accidental fires are a different story! There are some items here in the PNW that didn't exist in the Midwest. Things like "barkdust" and upland peat and a deep forest duff composed of lichens, moss and Old Man's Beard as well as high-country haygrass that blows for miles and sifts in between the rocks leaving trails of tinder...... out here, while it's hard to START a fire, especially quickly, it's also wikkid hard to put one out! And this duff stuff will smoulder for days, weeks, months even YEARS. There are still crews of men scouring the area around Beacon Rock and the Bonneville Power Dam here in The Gorge putting out stuff from last year's "Eagle Creek" fire. The one that was on the news.

This ground gets dry, deep down dry.....MN the water table was like 6ft down and the dirt was always loamy and dark. You spread a plastic sheet and water just drips off it. Out here it's dry feet under ground. When we're hunting and/or camping we've learned that if we can't scrape down to rocky gravel for a fire, NO FIRE..... You just do not build a cooking fire on the forest floor duff, even after raking all the leaves and needles and branches away.

We get fires from cigarettes, fires from spontaneous combustion, fires from water bottles laying in the ditch, fires from horse's hooves striking rocks on trails....and the deal is, the relative humidity is so freakin' low that they will smoulder for days THEN flare up in a breeze, when everybody's long gone.

We useta' burn ditches and swamps and fencelines out back in the Midwest every year. You get caught trying that out here they'll find you hanging upside down on a bobwire fence. It's basically 24-7 firewatch for 6mo of the year.

seriously.

My neighbor has been having a boy weedwhip ditches at his house this last week. 8hr days, the kid cuts grass for 6 hrs then gets paid to set and drink water and look at his work for two hrs firewatch......

Just a different thing here than elsewhere.

We have the dry

We have the fuel

We have the wind and

We have the terrain that allows for spooky leapfrogging

My son-in-law is getting back tonite from two weeks on the Mcleod, and he no longer fights wildfires...... he's been working structure here in Vancouver, but they didn't even give him an option just "grab yer White's and get on the bus"

And no rain in sight...... another summer in the West.......

 

[Brians356]

"grab yer White's and get on the bus"

Some here may not know what "Whites" are. In my father's young day working in the northwest woods, every logger, log driver, and firefighter, and many other woodsmen, wore expensive custom made White brand boots with spikes. They were referred to as "cork" boots (usually pronounced "caulk") for the cork or wooden plugs which retained the spikes in the soles. And most woodsmen wore Filson wool "cruiser" jackets with a water-resistant double layer back that formed a large pocket with two side openings, handy for packing a sandwich and extra dry socks. Any store, restaurant, or tavern in lumber towns had a sign outside "No Corks Allowed" to save the wooden flooring. The Whites would be lined up on the wooden porch or sidewalk outside.
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[muleman69]

A good friend told me last night that he has shot at steel in low light and could see the sparks . He was using lead and copper bullets (so be xtra careful out there)