[Telperion]

This is from the first time I took my pistol to the range... don't know why I remembered it now. One shot I fired I was sure missed the target completely (I had a bad flinch on my first outing). When it hit the backstop, the bullet lit up and burned for 2-3 seconds, belching black smoke. What happened? Can a bullet reach its own flash point by sliding along a cement floor?

[Camel]

My guess would be that the bullet ignited unburnt powder on the floor.

[QuarterBoreGunner]

At the indoor range I used to manage, we'd have fires like this occasionaly. Every night we'd sweep down the range, with all the unburnt powder and residue from target going to the far end, then once a week we'd clean out the lead and everything else.

Once in a while someone would be shooting some steel jacket milsupr stuff and we'd get a spark that would catch the all the stuff at the far end on fire. Always good for a show. I'd have to tell the people on the range that it was no big deal; the range is a big concrete and armor box- if bullets can't hurt it, fire sure won't.