Bullet strikes that make sparks in movies/TV

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Does anybody else get exasperated when movie and TV shows show sparks when bullets hit stuff? Usually it's when a vehicle gets hit, but I've seen it when it strikes the ground, and even wood. It even happened in "24", and that really got me upset. If 'ya can't believe Jack Bauer who can you believe?:(
My question is, is there a substance that when struck by a bullet would create sparks?
Jim
 
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Thats almost as good as a car scratching out on a dirt road with the tires screeching!
 
Entertainment - can you say "make-believe"

If you are dissapointed in the way a media depicts a story, read a book. Your mind's eye will provide the special effects & the more informed you are on a subject, the more real the story will be. After all, whether reading or watching TV, the objective is to kill time & be entertained.

Some time ago, my son wanted the video game "Rainbow Six". I told him if he read the book first, I'd buy him the game. He came back to me & was amazed " that's not even the same story as the movie" he said. My answer, "the difference is when reading, your mind's eye provides the visual effects".

He is now an avid reader & still coments on how far off the movie version of a story can go for the sake of sensationalism.

FWIW, the last movie I went to see, was a newly released "Pete's Dragon". And no, I don't own a TV.
 
Years ago my dad came west and I took him over to sis`s house. There was a bunch of grandkids and great grandkids there as pa was about 88 years old. They were watching that movie with arnold schwarzenegger where some hero gets shot, leaks chrome looking blood or whatever and heals himself. Dad was the most conservative no nonsense outspoken man God ever created, looks at me and roughly says what he thinks of the movie. My sister hears it and fishs out "Bambi" for the kids. One of them sat there for a minute watching it and proclaimed it a boreing dorkie movie. He said who could belive that talking deer?
 
Yes, there can be instances where a bullet strike could spark, but not very often. I like how when someone hides behind a 55 gallon drum 9mm or 223 from full automatic fire just bounces off creating sparks and not penetrating; how bullets bounce off of car bodies and leave no holes or pock marks but leave visible sparks.

The squibs used to make the effects of the bullet strikes apparently are wont to produce sparks and the camera catches it.

I cringe at how movie production companies spend gazillions on certain stars but can't hire a qualified technical director (you listening, Sip ? They need you;)).

Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Heat, etc.) has some of the best movie gun effects you'll see. I love how the gun battle in "Heat" was recorded sound-wise. Very realistic. Usually those effects are overdubbed and not usually very realistically; but in the downtown shootout scene you can hear the echoes of the battle rifles and carbines off the canyons created by concrete and steel high rise buildings and if you've ever heard those sounds it definitely stands out as opposed to other movie scenes that compare.

My favorite frustration - how the hero (or the villain) takes careful aim with a standard handgun (usually a 9mm) and proceeds to explode the gas tank on a car.

It's entertainment/fantasy and requires the suspension of belief for a while to enjoy the show. It drives wives nutz when we point all these flaws out DURING the movie :D
 
Depends on the kind of ammo and the area where you are firing...

I have a supply of lacquer-coated steel cased Wolf ammo in 9mm (jhp to be exact). Very dirty and, as to be expected unreliable.

I've fired them out of a Browning High Power in an indoor range...when the slugs hit the bullet stop, there is a lot of sparks.
 
I've been shooting 7N6 Commie 5.45x39 FMJ, w/steel core ammo for several yrs now.
One evening we shot my steel plates and I noticed SPARKS! I was rather amazed. So did it again a few months back...at night with snow on the ground. LOTS of sparks!

How I never set anything on fire the previous years with how dry it gets here in the summer and the dry grass...I will never know.

Speaking of the movies...I want some of those 9mm rds that fling the bad guys against the walls and disable cars soundly.

FN in MT
 
I recently saw sparks from the impact of .50 BMG projectiles --- maybe bronze, but not steel --- on rocks (our distant targets). My friend, a shooting range designer and expert on terminal ballistics issues says that there is a legitimate concern about sparking from bullet impacts, and says that the prohibition on plinking on federal lands during periods of high fire danger is legit. I guess that even soft bullets striking hard rocks, such as quartz, can strike sparks. Of course, the exaggerated effects from Hollywood are laughable.
 
Maybe they're using sparks to let the audience know where the make believe bullets are striking. Wow!, that was a close one!
 
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Ive see Tula 9mm make TV like sparks when it hits the indoor metal backstop. Its kinda scary...
 
The blue tipped 30-06 rounds were supposed to spark when they impacted a solid target.

Many military rounds today are loaded with steel, copper washed jackets (not solid copper), and these can spark on rocks and such.

Hollywood is pure fantasy, done to tell a story (usually with an agenda) and make money.
 
I can't remember who posted it but will try to quote him as near as possible.
" My wife said, 'You have no problem with cyborgs traveling through time but you get upset you when he doesn't reload the shotgun.' "
 
The thing that always puzzled me was when the hero is running and the bad guys are shooting at him, why do the bullets kick up dust at his feet?
 
I got hit in the head, just above the eye, with a scope on a Weatherby 300 once. Not sure what the bullet did but I saw sparks.

If one shoots at night, an observer will often see sparks from bullet strikes.
 
The part I hate the most is when they shoot a windshield and it makes sparks. That, and when they fire 300 rounds out of one 30 round mag.
 
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