I will start by citing a scene from a movie but I’m asking for a factual answer to a question.
In Kevin Costner’s “Wyatt Earp”, there’s a scene where Bat Masterson (I think)gets shot at very close range. It is such close range that his vest catches on fire at the bullet entry point. This is a very interesting effect.
BUT
Is that at all possible? Is there any chance of a bullet striking a subject and causing such friction as to light a small flame? Is there a reasonable explanation? Like- the bullet grazed a button on the vest which caused the spark?
Not possible. The bullet is lead, and unjacketed (which would be copper anyway) so no matter what it strikes on the human body, it isn’t going to catch it on fire. Now, if he is shot from close enough range the blast from the burning powder might char or ignite his vest , but that would be from the propellant, not the projectile.
Flame shoots out of the end of guns when you shoot them, even more so with that old black powder (here). I suspect this is more likely to be the cause of Bat’s vest igniting than sparks from a hunk of lead.
I didn’t see the film. Is the vest catching fire intentional? Or is it just that there is a flame at the point of bullet entry? If the latter:
Filmmakers use ‘squibs’ for bullet effects. (An actual S/FX person will probably be here shortly to say they’re not ‘squibs’; but that’s what we always call them.) We made these for a film we were working on last year. (Too cheap to hire a pyrotechnician.) Basically, they’re a contained charge that is ignited electrically. It’s not uncommon for the flame to be seen on film.
I’m guessing it’s intentional. The same thing happened in The Godfather II when young Vito (DeNiro) shot Fenucci with a gun wrapped in a towel. Fenucci was several feet away. The towel immediately caught fire. Funucci, while suffering from a case of lead poisoning, did not catch fire.
I would think this would be the reason. Black powder burns slowly when compared to smokeless, So still burning powder could be ejected from the end of the barrel.
I used to shoot constantly. One of my buds was a black powder nut. He used to bring some of his hardware out to the range and we all went nuts shooting it.
I distinctly remember firing at paper targets from close range (< 5 yards) and setting them on fire from the muzzle flash.
One night we used the muzzle flash of a Ruger Blackhawk to to trip the shutter on my camera. As I recall the fire shot out about 3 feet using ‘standard’ ammo.
I used to own a Ruger Single Six Convertable. It had two cylinders, one for .22LR and the other for .22 Magnum. When fireing the magnum shells the flame and gases shot out at least 12". I can certainly imagine it could cause combustion some distance beyond that.
