# What would happen if you threw bullets into a fire? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535 "2011-01-05T21:13:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/21 "2011-01-06T13:20:25Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Well, Bill Cosby says it proves that your Mother is pretty low-down. “I didn’t put the bullet in the furnace and stop talking about my mother!” 🙂 One of Mr. Cosby’s better monologues. Do you remember which album it’s on? I wonder if my turntable still works. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/22 "2011-01-06T14:22:10Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > “I didn’t put the bullet in the furnace and stop talking about my mother!” > > 🙂 > > One of Mr. Cosby’s better monologues. Do you remember which album it’s on? > I wonder if my turntable still works. I think it’s the track called “Shop” on Why Is There Air? ---
**Author:** ![ghostman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ghostman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ghostman)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/23 "2011-01-06T14:31:37Z")
We had a fire in a popup trailer a while back. While extinguishing, we all heard popcorn and thought that the guys must have had a huge tin of popcorn that was popping from the heat. When the fire was out and we were sifting through the carnage, we found 3 ammo boxes that had a bunch of outward facing dents. Fun times. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/24 "2011-01-06T15:11:42Z")
I’m glad someone asked this. When I was in elemantary school, akid had set ifre to a small pile of leaves and tossed a small bullet into the flames. Another kid stomped on the fire and yelled at the firestarter for “almost killing someone”. I’ve spent almost 50 years thinking I could have been killed (as I was one of the bystanders). Guess I was pretty safe all along. Scratch that anecdote from my memoirs. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/25 "2011-01-06T15:35:02Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > I’m glad someone asked this. When I was in elemantary school, akid had set ifre to a small pile of leaves and tossed a small bullet into the flames. Another kid stomped on the fire and yelled at the firestarter for “almost killing someone”. I’ve spent almost 50 years thinking I could have been killed (as I was one of the bystanders). Guess I was pretty safe all along. > Scratch that anecdote from my memoirs. 🙂 Back when shells were sometimes loaded with black powder there was a little (trace) more danger but then as now the big danger is from the coals of the fire getting tossed everywhere and starting one Hades of a fire - especially in a forest/camping situation. Fought a fire started that way ages ago. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/26 "2011-01-06T16:18:03Z")
[Explosions and fire in munitions plant](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40931079/ns/us_news-life/). No reports of what caused the explosions, or whether the fires sent shells flying in all directions. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/27 "2011-01-06T17:16:50Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > There’s a great scene in _Red_ where Bruce Willis drops a handful of shells in a frying pan to create a diversion. Really? Because maybe the movie got it from a P.J. Tracy book called **Dead Run** , because they did the same thing there. ETA: Depending on who was first, the book came out in 2005. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/28 "2011-01-06T18:04:14Z")
When I first got interested in handgun shooting, I remember reading an NRA handgun manual. This manual claimed that, if you put a cardboard box around the fire (assuming it’s large enough and far enough away from the fire itself to not catch fire) that cartridges in the fire that exploded wouldn’t even be able to punch through the cardboard box. J. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/29 "2011-01-06T18:08:25Z")
Just the primer powder will send an empty shell flying with quite some force. Once as a kid I heated a bunch of used .308 casings on a stoveplate to melt a little solder on the bottom to make extra-heavy blunt arrowheads. I’d never had a problem doing this, but once there was a couple of casings with intact primers in the batch. As soon as the casing heated up sufficiently, the primed ones flew straight up with a loud bang and stuck deep in the ceiling paneling some six feet above the stove. The solder-weighted casings had a mass of over 200 grains a piece. The force they hit the paneling told me they would’ve easily made a hot, circular puncture wound into flesh at close range. Never again did I heat up casings without first checking the primer was actually blown. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/30 "2011-01-06T20:48:32Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > Never again did I heat up casings without first checking the primer was actually blown. With a vise, hammer, and chisel? 😉 Ah, youth. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/31 "2011-01-07T18:52:11Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > I’m glad someone asked this. When I was in elemantary school, akid had set ifre to a small pile of leaves and tossed a small bullet into the flames. Another kid stomped on the fire and yelled at the firestarter for “almost killing someone”. I’ve spent almost 50 years thinking I could have been killed (as I was one of the bystanders). Guess I was pretty safe all along. > Scratch that anecdote from my memoirs. 🙂 Well you never know. How about the scenario where the round is resting pointing upwards and the primer (bottom of the round) is resting on a rock? That could potentially propel the bullet upwards with considerable force. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/32 "2011-01-16T21:07:27Z")
About 25 years ago, when I was a kid growing up in Vermont, a local sporting goods store burned to the ground. It was during the fall, just before deer season, and there were tens of thousands of rounds of ammo in the basement. I was not there myself to watch it happen, but according to local newspaper coverage, as well as people I know who witnessed it, there was a constant “pop pop” both during the fire and for about half a day afterward. All of the emergency personal, press, gawkers, etc. that should up for the event would have been more than close enough to the fire that there would have been a bloodbath if someone had started firing off randomly from the location of the store, yet there were no injuries. However, I’m not sure if the responding firefighters took any special precautions with regards to entering the building b/c of the ammo - but it was probably a moot issue as it was an old wooden building and it was completely engulfed when the fire department arrived, even though the fire station was practically across the street… ---
**Author:** ![wewesley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/41988e/32.png) [@wewesley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wewesley)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/33 "2014-09-02T23:01:19Z")
sereously if you have something with a good cap that can build pressure and have a giant fire if someone pisses you off a can of soup for instance would work well a beer bottle or six pack of odules worked well for me. someone pisses you off just throw something that is sealed well into the coals and heat will make the air expand and ka-boom. coal glass or mainly burning embers everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/34 "2014-09-02T23:12:38Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > “I didn’t put the bullet in the furnace and stop talking about my mother!” > > 🙂 > > One of Mr. Cosby’s better monologues. Do you remember which album it’s on? > I wonder if my turntable still works. I’d go look, but just sold my 50-year-old Cosby LPs at a garage sale. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535/35 "2014-09-02T23:23:17Z")
Given that this is an old thread, and it has been raised rather pointlessly, I’m closing it. Colibri General Questions Moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-you-threw-bullets-into-a-fire/566535.md?page=1)