Accidental Discharge...Outside of Gun? Does it Happen?

[loeman]

A few days ago a member posted a most interesting thread regarding Accidental Discharges. The responses were very interesting and very educational. But here's my question.

How hard is it or should I say how easy is it to discharge a round by dropping? I am very careful while loading magazines and cylinders. However, on occasion I do drop a round. Every time this happens I cringe. Have you ever had a round go off by dropping or by some means other than pulling the trigger?

 

[ralph7]

I honestly think you would be better off worrying about being struck by a meteorite than having a round go off by dropping it.

I'm sure that it may have happened sometime in the past, but the odds of it hitting something that would crush the primer in such a way as to make it discharge, have to be incredible.

 

[shouldazagged]

Never heard of it happening, and it seems to me most cartridges don't have enough mass to strike even a pointed object with the primer and detonate if dropped. Maybe if dropped out a fourth-floor window to land squarely on an upturned wood screw.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

No. I've dropped cartridges both rim fire & center on various floors. I.E. concrete & wood, never had one go off.

 

[Waywatcher]

Never had one detonate.

Heard that when they do, they actually blow out the side of the brass case, as it's the path of least resistance, making it loud but not as dangerous as it first seems.

 

[diamonback68]

I saw it happen once about five years ago at a gunshow. A guy had just bought a bag of 50 rounds I believe 45ACP IIRC and accidentally dropped the bag on a concrete floor and apparently on round round struck a primer just right and one went off. Good news is it went straight up and hit an A/C vent overhead, no one was harmed thank goodness. Police there just wrote it off as an accident as it wasn't the buyers fault or that he had done anything wrong.

 

[Jinglebob]

In fifty plus years I’ve never had a round go off outside a gun. I accidentally ran over a .38 Special round one time and it didn’t fire, just crushed it.

 

[arjay]

Very unlikely and the dryer won't set off rimfire either.

 

[ditrina]

I saw it happen once about five years ago at a gunshow. A guy had just bought a bag of 50 rounds I believe 45ACP IIRC and accidentally dropped the bag on a concrete floor and apparently on round round struck a primer just right and one went off. Good news is it went straight up and hit an A/C vent overhead, no one was harmed thank goodness. Police there just wrote it off as an accident as it wasn't the buyers fault or that he had done anything wrong.

I'm glad Dick saw it... I was under a table!!

 

[venomballistics]

Yup, 22lr that was dropped into the lawn.
Located later with the lawnmower when it caused some drama.

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

In the mid-sixties I was firing a .45 Auto, probably my Gold Cup, at an outdoor range with separated stalls. I think that the walls were covered with egg cartons, but I don't remember for sure. The box of ammo I had was in a Flambeau yellow plastic partitioned container, and it was uncovered. Apparently an ejected case bounced off the overhead and hit a primer. The case took off, one partition was blown out, and the bullet just sat there.

Needless to say, I close my ammo boxes these days.

 

[rwsmith]

Maybe......

Maybe if it dropped with the primer impinging on the head of a nail, ice pick or some other pointed object. Primers ARE susceptible to shock, but it would take a lot of shock to set off a primer seated in the case.

 

[Bkreutz]

I drop rounds all the time, mostly when I drop partially full magazines during a string of fire and the first couple of rounds come out of the mag. Never seen or heard of it happening. The mags get dropped both on crushed rock outside and concrete floors on indoor matches.

 

[nawilson]

I suppose anything is possible, but it would take a perfect storm of a thousand variables all going right (or actually wrong, I guess) for it to happen. It is low on my list of concerns... somewhere after "zombie apocalypse" on the list.

 

[pharmer]

When I was a kid, me and a few friends found a box of .30 carbine rds in his dad's garage. We spent an hour throwing them primer down on a road paved with small aggregate sticking up from the surface. Out of probably a thousand tries, none ignited (probably a good thing). Now igniting a cloud of "starting ether" in a closed garage was a sight to behold and never to be repeated. Can't really explain how I'm still here. Joe

 

[quneur]

It's hard to think of it happening cosidering there are kinetiic bullet pullers for reloading.

 

[peterthefish]

Agreed - unlikely. Loaded rounds would tend to fall heavy (bullet) side down. Be unlikely to have one fall primer side down on something small / sharp enough to strike the primer with enough force to set it off.

 

[tndrfttom]

Two Different Events

I recall a brief article in the American Rifleman (I'm guessing it was in the 1970's) that discussed a cartridge going off at a Bullseye match. If I recall correctly the shooter would dump 5 rounds at a time from a cardboard cartridge box and catch them in the palm of his hand. He would then load his magazine with the five rounds. One must have had a super-sensitive primer because as he dumped it out of the box the primer struck another cartridge or the ring he was wearing and went off cutting his hand with the flying brass.

In a case that I observed, we were shooting a pin match and at the end of a string of fire the shooter went to clear his .45 Govt. Mod. He dropped the magazine and racked the slide to extract the round in the chamber. The round went off somehow with the slide part way open. He had his hand over the ejection port (to try to trap the round so he wouldn't have to bend over to pick it up off the floor). His hand was cut with part of the brass case, the bullet was on the floor near his feet, but we were not able to find the head of the cartridge case and primer. The 'experts' at the range said he must have inadvertently pulled the trigger with the slide part-way open (don't see how that's possible) or that the primer some how struck the extended ejector (don't see how that's possible either). Needless to say I don't try to 'trap' live rounds coming out of the ejection port anymore.

 

[ironhead7544]

I also read about the incident at the bullseye match. In another case, it was a 10mm Auto round that fell on a firing line at night. Had probably hit the eyelet of a combat boot as that was the only metal available to hit.

Stuff happens. Be careful.

 

[loeman]

When I was a kid, me and a few friends found a box of .30 carbine rds in his dad's garage. We spent an hour throwing them primer down on a road paved with small aggregate sticking up from the surface. Out of probably a thousand tries, none ignited (probably a good thing). Now igniting a cloud of "starting ether" in a closed garage was a sight to behold and never to be repeated. Can't really explain how I'm still here. Joe

Joe,
Isn't it amazing how most of us live to become adults? Your post again reminds us to keep ALL of our gun related stuff securely locked and out of the reach of kids. And don't think hiding it somewhere is going to be ok. It's not, kids can find anything.

Thanks everyone for commenting on this question. Seems like detonating a round outside of the gun is pretty remote, but as several posters have written, it can happen. Be safe!