.22 Round Fired On A Drop?

[IndianaResident]

Has anyone ever had this happen?

A guy at the local fat-chewin' table was retelling a story about him losing a chunk of his foot to a .22 round that fell from his table and went off.

I don't know the brand, but I've dropped a few .22s without incident.

Common occurrence though?



...Also, we challenged him to double or nothing, he wouldn't play.

 

[Kingrat]

maybe if he dropped the round while it was in a gun, otherwise i dont see it doing much even if it did go off, the brass case would split open and shoot hot gas/brass but even if it went off on top of his foot it would probably just burn and leave some brass pieces in that could be pulled out with tweezers

ive never heard of such a thing happening

 

[VUPDblue]

It would stand to reason that this is possible. I went to school with a guy who had a permanent injury from a 12ga shell that detonated when it just happened to land primer-first on a nail head that was protruding from a wood floor.

 

[remymartin]

I saw a guy stuff one in a drinking straw and throw it upwards....... it hit the ground rim first obviously, went off. Seems to me the energy would be cut in half as the casing would be traveling at the same speed due to the lack of a solid breech. The overall energy of the round would be cut in half. Still dangerous??, sure. lethal? meh.

 

[Disposable Heart]

I saw a guy stuff one in a drinking straw and throw it upwards....... it hit the ground rim first obviously, went off. Seems to me the energy would be cut in half as the casing would be traveling at the same speed due to the lack of a solid breech. The overall energy of the round would be cut in half. Still dangerous??, sure. lethal? meh.

I would second that to a degree, cut in half or quartered (or even less): I have had a hangfire go off after I cycled the action and kept shooting at a friend's farm. A little "POOP!" and the bullet sort of sputtered off with no real velocity (9mm handload). Without the chamber/barrel, the bullet tumbles off the top of the casing instead of shooting outwards laserlike. Granted .22 has a similar chamber pressure as .45 Auto (something I think others overlook) and a different crimp style, but I cannot see it taking a chunk off unless it was still in a chamber. 9mm pressure = 30K or more PSI. .22? Far less than that.

It sounds more like an elaborate story to cover an ND into his foot (or someone just jawjacking to sound like he did ).

 

[Glocker1986]

I have dorpped plenty of 22 rounds without incident. I wouldnt say it is impossible but I would say its highly unlikely for one to go off.

 

[indykid]

Even if it did go off it would be more like a firecracker than a round going off in a barrel. If he was in bare feet, then like a firecracker a .22LR could take a chunk out of a foot.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I saw a guy stuff one in a drinking straw and throw it upwards....... it hit the ground rim first obviously, went off. Seems to me the energy would be cut in half as the casing would be traveling at the same speed due to the lack of a solid breech. The overall energy of the round would be cut in half. Still dangerous??, sure. lethal? meh.

Not quite...

Conservation of momentum is related to the mass. The velocity of the bullet would be cut in half, if the case weighed the same as the bullet (but it doesn't) and the case bullet reacted ideally to one another (no energy from the burning of the powder was lost elsewhere). That also assumes that the case stays in one piece and goes directly in the opposite direction as the bullet. But lets go with the "cut in half thing".

Energy is a product of mass and velocity ^2. So if you cut velocity in half the energy is 1/4.

I just measured an empty .22 case and it is 10.3 grains, we'll just call it 10. Now, for a 40 gr bullet, your case would be going roughly 4 times as fast the bullet. Because the case is much lighter than the bullet, there is a lot more energy transferred to the case. The case will have 4 times the energy of the bullet 10 *(4*V)^2 =160V^2 vs. 40*(V^2) = 40V^2

Now, as far as the actual energy comparison of the bullet vs. a bullet fired from a barrel is a much more complicated calculation and I'm not even going to attempt it. But I would wager to say that the bullet has 10% or less energy when it's not fired from a barrel.

 

[FordMan08]

I would have just asked to see his foot.

 

[buzzined]

I just measured an empty .22 case and it is 10.3 grains, we'll just call it 10. Now, for a 40 gr bullet, your case would be going roughly 4 times as fast the bullet. Because the case is much lighter than the bullet, there is a lot more energy transferred to the case. The case will have 4 times the energy of the bullet 10 *(4*V)^2 =160V^2 vs. 40*(V^2) = 40V^2

I guess this IS rocket science.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I guess this IS rocket science.

eh ... I'm a nerdy engineer... I can't help it... you can probably call me a rocket scientist too; I've done work on ballistic missiles in the past.

 

[03A3]

I had a 22 LR go off in my pants pocket one time. I had several rounds of ammo in there plus 2 AA batteries. All I can figure is an electrical circuit was made that got that one round hot enough to go off.
It burned/blew a hole about the size of a dime in my pocket and longjohns. The bullet didn't go anywhere, stayed right there in my pocket.

 

[lane440]

Way back when we were Jr research and development engineers , we borrowed .22 rounds our fathers , we threw them at brick walls, at the concreate ect , not obtaining a single desired result . We then tried pliers and a hammer ... that did it ,bang every time . The sienor engineers soon found us and ended all funding of this project. Amazingly they started some strange leather testing on our backsides. Im fairly positive that a .22 round does not have enough mass or wieght to ignite from a simple drop, however a lot of people have .22 wounds with strange storys behind them .

 

[hip shot]

I would second that to a degree, cut in half or quartered (or even less): I have had a hangfire go off after I cycled the action and kept shooting at a friend's farm. A little "POOP!" and the bullet sort of sputtered off with no real velocity (9mm handload). Without the chamber/barrel, the bullet tumbles off the top of the casing instead of shooting outwards laserlike. Granted .22 has a similar chamber pressure as .45 Auto (something I think others overlook) and a different crimp style, but I cannot see it taking a chunk off unless it was still in a chamber. 9mm pressure = 30K or more PSI. .22? Far less than that.

It sounds more like an elaborate story to cover an ND into his foot (or someone just jawjacking to sound like he did ).

not to tread jack but I am wondering how long the hang fire was. We teach our studends to not open the gun for a several seconds and keep the gun pointed down range with a misfire.

Also friend of my was reloading 12 shotgun shells and he was dropping the reloads into a 5 gallon bucket. One hit just right and it want off. It was very loud and spraed parts of the shell all over the garage. Scared the sh%%%%% out of him.

 

[redryder]

Hammer + 22lr = Fun. Still have all my fingers and eyes. When I was young and dumb we shot off a bunch of 22 rounds that way.

 

[Disposable Heart]

not to tread jack but I am wondering how long the hang fire was. We teach our studends to not open the gun for a several seconds and keep the gun pointed down range with a misfire.

Also friend of my was reloading 12 shotgun shells and he was dropping the reloads into a 5 gallon bucket. One hit just right and it want off. It was very loud and spraed parts of the shell all over the garage. Scared the sh%%%%% out of him.

Glad you asked. I didn't. I immediantly cycled the action as I would with a faulty round in a defensive shooting situation (as I was practicing for). Sometimes, NRA rules don't work or should not be employed in the "field" I will say, for range work, yes make sure it isn't going to go off, but for practice for defense, training that hesitation for something that is a tempest in a teacup could get someone hurt.

One thing to note, the didn't do ANYTHING. It popped and chucked the bullet about 2 feet in the air with little energy. I am not saying the round WONT go off, I am saying it doesn't have the energy to do much unless it is something REALLY raucus and even then, not a whole lot damaging is going to happen outside of a little bit of a light show. The stories of Johnny Rickyhick blowing his foot off with a .22 failure is a very tall tale at most.

 

[AccuRat]

Yes it can and yes, I've experienced it. Long time ago when I was a young dummy, my buddy and I were out shooting gophers in Wyoming. We got in the car and were driving down a gravel road to another spot, reloading our magazines along the way. He found a .22LR round in the bulk box with a deformed bullet and, being a young dummy like myself, simply tossed it up and out the open sunroof. We were only doing about 15-20mph and all the windows were down. I saw him toss it and a second or two later, we heard the unmistakeable "POP" when it hit the road, obviously primer side down. We looked at eachother and exclaimed, "HOLY $#*T" in perfect unison. Never did that or anything like it again.

 

[ATM]

...A little "POOP!" and the bullet sort of sputtered off with no real velocity (9mm handload).

Wow. It must have really scared you!


I probably wouldn't admit to that part if it happened to me.

 

[Colt556]

I've dropped plenty of .22s over the years and have never had one go off. I've always wondered about all the "live" .22s laying around the shooting benches at the range going off though. I wonder if they would go off by being stepped on or run over by a lawnmower.