How dangerous could this have been?

[Fsappo]

I guess I already know the answer, but this is an interesting story:
This morning my installer went on a service call for a jammed auger in a Magnum Countryside Insert. A fresh bullet (yes, the kind you shoot from a gun) was lodged in the auger. He just called it in, I didnt see it, but it was larger than a .22. Imagine if that had worked its way down to the burn pot.

Scary stuff. Turns out her husband sometimes carries bullets in his shirt pocket and must have leaned over to do the loading

 

[SidecarFlip]

Not at all. An unchambered cartridge, when it ignites, just makes a small pop, nothing more. If it was a corn burner, it would sound like a kernel popping. A cartridge has to be constrained in a firing chamber to expell a bullet. No chamber equals nothing more than a powder burn, basically a small pop.

 

[Fsappo]

Ahh, I was thinking the bullet would fire off in whatever direction it was pointing with the same velocity as if it was fired from a rifle. So now the next question is, how many BTUs per pound for bullets!

 

[Bkins]

A new way to clean your burnpot?

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I am a firearms dealer/training officer as one of my many vocations.

Depending on the size of the cartridge and the amount of powder in it, there would certainly have been a good POP but likely not too much damage.

There could have been a back blast of soot and smoke from the air inlet, depending totally on the amount of powder.

Years ago my dad accidentally tossed a few primers in the fireplace.

They make a good sized POP, about like a small firecracker (Very small)
Add to this the powder charge and it could have gotten the home owner a little excited for sure..

As was mentioned, unless the cartridge was in the chamber of the gun the case simply pops open.
I have seen rifle cartridges go off that have found their way into a campfire.

For sure its not an ideal situation to feed spare cartridges to the pellet stove :grrr:

Hmmmmm stoking up the pellet stove with 50/50 pellets and primers ??????? probably not a great idea.


Snowy

 

[thewoodlands]

I guess I already know the answer, but this is an interesting story:
This morning my installer went on a service call for a jammed auger in a Magnum Countryside Insert. A fresh bullet (yes, the kind you shoot from a gun) was lodged in the auger. He just called it in, I didnt see it, but it was larger than a .22. Imagine if that had worked its way down to the burn pot.

Scary stuff. Turns out her husband sometimes carries bullets in his shirt pocket and must have leaned over to do the loading

Must of been Barney's 1 bullet.

Zap

 

[Ladderlieu]

If you guys want to soil your undies, join me some day fighting a house fire. You never know what kind of ammunition or how much some people have in their homes. We "appreciate" when a homeowner warns us as we're going into the house that there are weapons/ammunition. Most people don't know to say anything though. Some of that stuff does make a hell of a "pop". You always wonder, though, if someone has a loaded weapon in their house. That's an entirely different story...

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Yeah Buddy

A loaded weapon that gets "Cooked off" is no different than if the trigger was pulled.

That bullet becomes a serious threat for sure to anyone in the line of fire.

Snowy

 

[jtakeman]

I remember watch mythbusters(love that show) where they were placing shells in the oven. It took some large caliber shells to even dent the stove housing or break the glass out. Funny thing was the brass casing was more dangerous than the bullet. They dumped some in a campfire and results were dangerous but not deadly.

 

[ChandlerR]

Years ago, as a call firefighter, we went to a house fire. I was on the interior attack team and when hosing down a room, there was a very large blue flash. Thinking it was from electricity, I'm calling on the radio to get the meter pulled. They radio'd back that the meter was off and there was no power to the house. After another big blue flash and more radio calls and more assurance that there was no power to the house, we finally got the fire knocked down. When the smoke cleared we saw we were in a room where the owner had large amounts of black powder stored in coffee cans. Every time we hit one with the stream and knocked it over, the powder flashed. Scared the cr*p out of us. (He was into muzzle loaders)

Chan

 

[SidecarFlip]

I won't even go in to how much powder, primers and assorted stuff I have squirreled away in my closet. Lets just say I buy my bullets (for reloading) 4000 at a time.

 

[smwilliamson]

I remember watch mythbusters(love that show) where they were placing shells in the oven. It took some large caliber shells to even dent the stove housing or break the glass out. Funny thing was the brass casing was more dangerous than the bullet. They dumped some in a campfire and results were dangerous but not deadly.

Did you see the one where they loaded the cement mixer with dynamite...80lbs and the thing was obliterated.

 

[ChandlerR]

I think that was diesel fuel and fertilizer....and there was a lot of it! Homeland security and the FBI were in on it. That was my favorite episode. They even closed a highway over a mile away for the blast.

Chan