Bullets starting wildfires?

[Texas10]

Watched it happen at my local range. I watched a guy shooting FMJ against range rules bounced one off the ground about halfway to his 200 yd target. Fire broke out a couple of minutes later. Almost got away from us before FD put it out. Could have been a real conflagration due to hot, dry conditions. After all the fuss settled down, he was the only one not still on the range.

 

[ngb1787]

Doce Fire, Prescott Arizona June 2013. Burned thousands of acres.

 

[Rustytigwire]

rustytigwire

Is that actual Tannerite or some other mix? We make a lot of K'Booms and generally have to juice tannerite mixes with other metals/fuels/oxidizers to make flash/sparks etc.

Tannerite is so efficient and mainly so bloody fast it generally just puffs white with a small contained flash, no lasting sparks. In fact long ago when it first came out we tried to make fireballs by blowing up fuels (gas/diesel/propane etc) and couldn't achieve ignition.

Al,
Any deception is unintentional.
Pics are frame by frame video from Samsung Galaxie S5 on normal vid mode. Dont know how many frames per second.
Under the kaboom is weathered chipboard. Maybe ths chips the spark source. Ground zero was not charred at all.
The product used was 1 pound of Sonic Boom in the orange container. Tannerite is also shown in the attached pic. Additives are an interesting subject. Next year Tannerite video to compare.
Tom

 

[rogn]

A little late but I hadnt seen this before. In regards to Tannerite or other reactive type targets they may not necessaril be primary sources of environmental fires. But if you consider the explosive effect and the kinetic effect on rocks metal particles and etc, there is every chance for things to rub together and create sparks. Just one spark at the right time and place are all it takes.

 

[antelopedundee]

Cant fire bullets with any steel in them in the forest here on the left coast, ranges won't let you fire them either. I have not whiteness it but I guess a pullet can start a fire.

I'd be too chicken to try, LOLOL!

 

[antelopedundee]

A little late but I hadnt seen this before. In regards to Tannerite or other reactive type targets they may not necessaril be primary sources of environmental fires. But if you consider the explosive effect and the kinetic effect on rocks metal particles and etc, there is every chance for things to rub together and create sparks. Just one spark at the right time and place are all it takes.

I suppose one could go out at night and focus a video cam on a rock and start shooting various bullets and see if any cause sparks.

 

[dave@aDave]

View attachment 1067798
View attachment 1067799

Watch:

Canada Vignettes: Log Driver's Waltz

 

[Brians356]

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.
-

This chap's grandson was in High School with me in Lewiston. The Snake River ranches referred to were in or near what is now Hell's Canyon Nat. Rec. Area. As such, they were largely accessible only by riverboat, upstream from Lewiston.

J.B. Starnes pauses while resoling a pair of logging boots during his morning shift at the Idaho Shoe Shop in downtown Lewiston, Idaho, for this photo taken by John H. Killen and published in the July 30, 1978, Lewiston Tribune. Starnes was the subject of one in the series of Elders columns written by longtime Trib reporter Thomas W. Campbell, and in the story Starnes described how he was running a harness shop in Colton before World War I when he also began repairing shoes for the farmers, and during a stint in the U.S. Army serving in that war in Europe, he was made the cobbler of Battery F. After the war, he eventually moved to Lewiston to work in a shoe repair shop, and then bought his own shop downtown. At the time of this photo, that shop was operated by his son, David. In the story, Starnes talked a bit about his early life in North Carolina, and how the cost of good footwear had gone up, as well as how the cost of the items used in repairing that same footwear — such as nails and thread — also had increased. He recounted a time years before when “the Snake River ranchers and their employees used to send a bag full of boots to him on the mail boat: ‘I’d resole them and they’d go back up the river with the groceries.’ “

 

[D-4297]

There was a desert fire south of Tucson last summer caused by two young men out "target" shooting with their super tricked-out AR's , that burn nearly 5,000 acres of pristine desert , and burned for several weeks . No tracers or Tannerite involved , according to the news reports . Guess the "conditions" met all of the "scientific" requirements . Guess the moral to the story is : Think about where you are , and what's around you before pulling the trigger .

 

[Lesloan]

There was a desert fire south of Tucson last summer caused by two young men out "target" shooting with their super tricked-out AR's , that burn nearly 5,000 acres of pristine desert , and burned for several weeks . No tracers or Tannerite involved , according to the news reports . Guess the "conditions" met all of the "scientific" requirements . Guess the moral to the story is : Think about where you are , and what's around you before pulling the trigger .

If the news reports say no tannerite or tracer was involved you can be pretty sure that one or both were.

 

[D-4297]

If the news reports say no tannerite or tracer was involved you can be pretty sure that one or both were.

The actual info came from a DPS officer who was on scene , and being interviewed by the local station . KGUN , I think .

 

[rr2030]

I'd be too chicken to try, LOLOL!

Finally, someone got it !

 

[rammac]

The actual info came from a DPS officer who was on scene , and being interviewed by the local station . KGUN , I think .

And a DPS officer isn't even qualified to determine how a fire was started, that's usually a Fire Department forensics expert that does that, a guy that spent years studying fires, not some random cop.

Years ago, while I live in Utah, I saw a couple of guys start a fire by shooting at some off brand explosive powder. They actually put the stuff on the ground and then covered it with dry brush. I called the cops and reported what they were doing but before the cops and fire dpt. got there a fire started. Later that day, when the news service published the story about the fire they claimed that target shooters started the fire with their bullets. I guess it's not a lie, but it's not the truth either.

I grew up in Arizona and spent many years at MCAS Yuma, AZ as a Marine. I've done a lot of shooting in the Arizona desert during the summer and I've never started a fire, in fact, we never started a fire during our field operations either.

But I'm sure that the "experts" that claim to know a guy that knew a guy that heard about somebody starting a fire with a bullet will always be the more reliable.

 

[geraldgee]

I’ve seen it at Ft Benning .. not tracers

 

[Bill K]

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

It occurs more often than reported and does occur, but 99% if the time it is with FMJ bullets.

 

[PRR1957]

See that this old thread has come back life, try shooting at high iron oxide content quarts rock (a.k.a. flint or chert) if you want to see sparks.

As for tracer bullets. I shot a tracer into a clay back stop at 100 yard rifle range once, and geyser of white smoke came billowing out for about five seconds or so. Range officer came over to my bench to inspect my 223 ammo which mostly Hornady V-Max red tipped bullets with a few red tipped tracers. He couldn’t see the difference between the two bullet types. Then he asked me what that geyser of smoke was and I replied, “Hot load ?”. He gave me a rather dubious look and kept an eye after that, so I didn’t press my luck and shoot any more tracers.

 

[ChesterS]

At Fort Gordon we started a fire that caught some pine trees on fire during night training with tracers. 1977

 

[MGYSGT]

Camp Pendleton, on more than one occasion.

Yea, but they were tracers.

 

[Bill K]

View attachment 1062016
Whites are still the standard. Just had two pair rebuilt this spring, one will likely need new soles by fall.
CW

Have wore Whites, for years, Always bought and made for me in the store in Klamath Falls, Or. However my longest lasting park is my White, Elk Hunter one's, which I still use in winter.