# What happens if you shoot a propane tank?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 16, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207 "2011-07-16T01:44:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/1 "2011-07-16T01:44:58Z")
OK, let’s say that I know this guy who is in a pitched gunfight with a group of bad guys, and he notices that they are standing next to a propane tank which has presumably slipped their attention. What will happen if he shoots it? Big explosion? Gas leak? Relatively harmless ricochet?
Need answer fast. 😃
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/2 "2011-07-16T01:50:53Z")
Pistol-9mm, ricochet.
Rifle, gas leak.
_Mythbusters_ did this one, if I remember, they needed a minigun to get a big boom.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/3 "2011-07-16T01:53:29Z")
Depends on your aim. Propane tanks are cylinders. The higher (or lower) you hit, the greater the angle, the more likely the deflection. If you want to punch a hole in it, you need a relatively centered shot and a pretty good-sized round.
If you want an exciting explosion, you’d better be shooting tracer rounds.
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/4 "2011-07-16T01:59:03Z")
What about once I make the gas leak, and some foolish mook on the other side pulls the trigger again? Will his weapon firing generate a spark that could ignite a propane leak?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/5 "2011-07-16T02:13:03Z")
[_Mythbusters_ Episode 95 results.](http://mythbustersresults.com/episode95)
> [@](#):
>
> A person can shoot a propane tank and make it explode.
>
> BUSTED
>
> First, the Build Team decided to test whether it was possible to breach a propane tank with Bond’s 9mm handgun. They found that 9mm rounds were not powerful enough to breach the tank, but shotgun shells and .30 caliber rifle rounds were more than enough to pierce the tank. They then fired armor piercing rifle rounds at a tank filled with propane, but could not get the tank to explode.\*\* Not even tracer rounds were successful.\*\* Finally, the Build Team resorted to extreme measures. They found that the only sure way to make a propane tank explode was to use high explosive or a high powered Gatling gun firing incendiary rounds. The Build Team concluded that Bond (and most people) would not normally have access to such weaponry, busting the myth.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/6 "2011-07-16T02:13:54Z")
The Mythbusters episode mentioned above made it look like propane was scarcely more flammable than cooking sherry. They had to try pretty hard to even get as much as a jet of flame out of the tank, and it took something not much smaller than a rocket-propelled grenade and some serious monkeying around with the safety devices in a standard barbecue tank to actually make the thing explode.
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### Author:  [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/7 "2011-07-16T02:30:06Z")
> [@Raguleader](#):
>
> What about once I make the gas leak, and some foolish mook on the other side pulls the trigger again? Will his weapon firing generate a spark that could ignite a propane leak?
Only if it happens to be at the appropriate oxygen/propane mix. The thing with sparks and gas explosions is they don’t just happen, you need the right mixture for anything to ignite. In an open area this rarely happens and in a closed are you need good timing because to much or too little propane and you don’t get the boom.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/8 "2011-07-16T02:38:02Z")
You have to have flame around it for anything interesting to happen.
We’ve done this. One Thanksgiving a few years back, we soaked a patch of desert with lighter fluid and parked a propane canister in the middle. Lit the sucker, backed off a ways, then shot it with a .223. Small flame, BIG flame, and the cylinder went flying about a hundred yards. But it was intact when we found it, with just a couple of holes in it from the bullet.
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### Author:  [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/9 "2011-07-16T02:41:41Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#):
>
> The Mythbusters episode mentioned above made it look like propane was scarcely more flammable than cooking sherry. They had to try pretty hard to even get as much as a jet of flame out of the tank, and it took something not much smaller than a rocket-propelled grenade and some serious monkeying around with the safety devices in a standard barbecue tank to actually make the thing explode.
Most things we use as fuel aren’t going to be super dangerous.
If propane and gasoline exploded as easily as the movies and video games show it’s unlikely they would be used like they are or stored like they are (any Joe can go down and fill a gasoline container at a pump.) In real life you can take a high powered rifle and shoot the giant 150-200 gallon fuel tanks on a semi-truck and it will just mean someone is out a lot of money replacing the fuel and fixing the tank, but nothing is going to blow up.
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### Author:  [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/10 "2011-07-16T02:46:20Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> You have to have flame around it for anything interesting to happen.
>
> We’ve done this. One Thanksgiving a few years back, we soaked a patch of desert with lighter fluid and parked a propane canister in the middle. Lit the sucker, backed off a ways, then shot it with a .223. Small flame, BIG flame, and the cylinder went flying about a hundred yards. But it was intact when we found it, with just a couple of holes in it from the bullet.
Another way of thinking about these sort of things is imagine you have a gas can filled with gasoline. You take a nail to it and a hammer, and drive the nail into the tank.
No one realistically thinks that would cause an explosion, it would just cause a leak in the can.
Propane isn’t any different really, the only difference is a propane tank is pressurized. So if you were able to puncture a whole in it with some sort of hand tool the danger would be the rapid escape of the gas and such, but the chances of explosion aren’t much different than when you drove a nail into a plastic gasoline tank. Propane and gasoline are not designed to _explode from percussion_. If they were they would be very, very dangerous to transport, and you could expect a propane tank to explode if it fell off a truck and rolled onto the interstate.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/11 "2011-07-16T03:04:52Z")
Did you mean shoot AT a propane tank? Or shoot a propane tank OUT of some kind of gun?
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### Author:  [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/12 "2011-07-16T03:21:31Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Or shoot a propane tank OUT of some kind of gun?
Now _that’s_ going on the ol’ Xmas list this year.
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### Author:  [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/13 "2011-07-16T04:02:30Z")
Does it matter if you hit in the vapor on top or down in the liquid? At least with gasoline, I think a hit up in the vapor/air mix would be more likely to ignite. Propane tanks would be all vapor and no air on top.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/14 "2011-07-16T04:14:19Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#):
>
> The Mythbusters episode mentioned above made it look like propane was scarcely more flammable than cooking sherry.
Propane is plenty flammable. Just not without oxygen present.
The science is called [Stoichiometry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoichiometry) and it deals with fuel/oxygen ratios necessary for combustion to occur.
You must have oxygen (or a few other gasses but mainly oxygen is the thing) to allow combustion to happen. Too much or too little will either diminish the burn rate or make it impossible completely. Different gasses have different ideal ratios.
This is why when you light a gas stove the fire does not burn in reverse down the gas line (no oxygen in the gas line). That is a good thing.
When you shoot the tank you poke a hole in it but it happens far too fast to mix the air and the gas to a point where it will ignite. Only when they went to extreme lengths and were able to disperse the gas rapidly into the air could they get an explosion.
ETA: I’d have liked to see them shoot the tank once, wait differing amounts of time to allow the gas to bleed out then shoot it again. I suspect if conditions were right (no wind blowing the gas away) the second shot might produce an explosion.
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/15 "2011-07-16T04:48:42Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> ETA: I’d have liked to see them shoot the tank once, wait differing amounts of time to allow the gas to bleed out then shoot it again. I suspect if conditions were right (no wind blowing the gas away) the second shot might produce an explosion.
Not to spoil anything plot-wise, but there is a really great optional scene in Mass Effect that works that way. Bad guy du jour is monologing, Shepherd interrupts with “You talk too much.” and shoots the gas line. Bad guy stops for a moment to consider what just happened, and then Shepherd shoots again to ignite the gas.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/16 "2011-07-16T05:06:33Z")
> [@Raguleader](#):
>
> Not to spoil anything plot-wise, but there is a really great optional scene in Mass Effect that works that way. Bad guy du jour is monologing, Shepherd interrupts with “You talk too much.” and shoots the gas line. Bad guy stops for a moment to consider what just happened, and then Shepherd shoots again to ignite the gas.
_Mythbusters_ did that one, too. Sorta.
They were trying to ignite a room full of gas with the muzzle flash.
They had a _hell_ of a time getting the ratios right. (Stoichiometry as mentioned by Whack-A-Mole)
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### Author:  [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/17 "2011-07-16T05:35:09Z")
Hunter S. Thompson did this regularly for recreational purposes. I know that somewhere I have read a description written by him of what it looked like (e.g. a brilliant flash of fire lighting up the night", etc.) but I can’t find it.
I do remember it sometimes involved attaching a blasting cap or some additional explosive to the propane tank before shooting it. But other cases seem to have “blown up real good” with just a tank and a shotgun. I can find plenty of references to him doing it, but most of them drift off into a story like [this](http://socyberty.com/people/hunter-s-thompson-the-godfather-of-gonzo/)before getting to the specifics of the fireball it created.
> [@](#):
>
> Throughout the latter years of his life, Thompson settled down in his home of Woody Creek, Colorado. The roof of his house facing the road had a giant hand giving the finger, painted on it. Thompson could regularly be seen shooting small propane gas tanks with his various guns. In 1990, Time magazine reporter Sam Allis went to Hunter’s rural home to interview him. He was greeted by a drunken raving lunatic who was hell-bent on burning his Christmas tree. At first, not wanting to interview, he rambled. Eventually, agreeing to do the interview, he decided he must have a wig. Eventually this led to Hunter deciding that he was going to burn the tree. After much panic and “bad noise,” as Thompson would have put it, the house was no longer on fire, and Hunter Thompson coined himself the “champion of fun.” (An Evening (gasp!) with Hunter S. Thompson. 64)
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/18 "2011-07-16T05:56:46Z")
**Disclaimer:**
**DO NOT** try this at home (or anywhere). The science is clear on this but nevertheless playing with flammable gasses in this manner is a recipe for disaster.
If you shoot the tank the gas will bleed out. Once mixed with the air there is a great potential for a serious explosion. Fuel-Air Explosives (FAE) are among the most devastating conventional bombs in a military arsenal. Poking holes in a propane tank/shooting it is a recipe for killing a bunch of people.
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### Author:  [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/19 "2011-07-16T06:17:34Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> **Disclaimer:**
>
> **DO NOT** try this at home (or anywhere).
That is sage advice regarding almost anything that Hunter S. Thompson did for recreational purposes.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2011, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-shoot-a-propane-tank/589207/20 "2011-07-16T07:02:39Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#):
>
> That is sage advice regarding almost anything that Hunter S. Thompson did for recreational purposes.
Indeed. He’s one of my heroes for doing this:
> [@](#):
>
> Thompson, never one for deadlines, responsibilities or coherence, started sending his bosses pages ripped out of his personal journal. Go ahead, try that at your job, see how it goes. Especially if your journal includes paragraphs like this:
>
> _“The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.”_
>
> Read more: 6 Writers Who Accidentally Crapped Out Masterpieces | [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) [6 Writers Who Accidentally Crapped Out Masterpieces | Cracked.com](http://www.cracked.com/article_17221_6-writers-who-accidentally-crapped-out-masterpieces.html#ixzz1SFWAyGxs)
That sounds more dangerous than shooting propane tanks.
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