"Bullet Explodes" in Purse

I wonder what it was that hit the primer... It takes a bit of an impact to do that. Doesn't seem to me like it would go off from jostling while walking around, or nobody would sell bulk pack .22lr.

Without going into great detail I was "in the area" when a 22lr round exploded due to contact with a 9volt battery in a camera bag. It would have left a mark had it been within reach. As it was, the bag was under the front seat and only left some bits of brass case scattered across the floorboards.

I have seen cartridges and shotshells go off when shot with BB guns ! I cant imagine one getting hit hard enough in a purse to go off ! Maybe she had a 9 volt battery in her purse and the the round shorted the battery ? Kevin

i have never had one go off, except when i pull the trigger of a gun. it would most likely be a rimfire. center fire cartridges would be pretty tough to ignite by them "jostling around". the closest thing to that, was on a move roughly 20 years ago. one of our puppies found a loose 22 cartridge in the back of the truck, and chewed on it. she punched a hole right thru both sides of the case! thankfully, it was about mid way between the primer and bullet. it would have been disastrous for everyone concerned if she had bitten into the primer area. i still miss that dog.

I've never seen any ammo go bang that wasnt struck pretty sharply with something. I walk, climb and crawl about with pockets buldging full of rimfire ammo or a few spare centerfire rifle bullets and have for many years without issues.
Not saying it is impossible but it is pretty unlikely.
T

My son cleaned surface discoloration from some old LC 5.56 by just running it through a rock tumbler with some walnut shell media. No kabooms.

Remind me though never to substitute the contents of a woman's purse for proper polishing media.

The bit about the bullet going nowhere but the case taking off like a rocket matches my experience burning trash ammo.

it would have been disastrous for everyone concerned if she had bitten into the primer area.

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Nah. Priming compound is very impact sensitive, but it takes a lot of pressure to detonate it; Dog would have had to crush the rim between her molars, and even then, most likely the compound would have disintegrated and fallen into the case without detonating. We used to pull .22 bullets and crush the rims with pliers to get the compound out for making little bombs when we were kids, never had one detonate.

News media nitwits need to get their facts straight before printing something they know nothing about.. Especially firearms!

"bullets"

Could a static electricity shock do the trick? Just jind of spooky if that happened.

Mark

News media nitwits need to get their facts straight before printing something they know nothing about.. Especially firearms!

"bullets"

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Even if you explained the difference most of the public would look at you like some OCD headcase for making a distinction. To the general public, a single round of loaded ammunition is a "bullet".

That said - they probably could easily examine the primer and determine if something struck it or something else (maybe heat or electricity - though both seem unlikely) caused the round to cook off.

One in a million, but that doesn't mean we should run our own experiment!

Can't imagine any circumstances that could fire a primer by impact in this case.
I can see the remote possibility of a static electric discharge managing it though.
I say this because one time about 50 years ago I has a pocket full of flashbulbs all go off.
It was a cold winter day and I was wearing a wool topcoat.
All the old fashioned flash bulbs went off and burned up most of the pocket!
Damndest thing I ever had happen.

A guy at my local range who...has lapses in concentration at times, threw a .38 round quite hard against a wall. Gave us all a bit of a shock

It doesn't take the impact you think it does

While shooting at an indoor range about two years ago my buddy was shooting my uspt45 while I was loading my magazine behind him at a table about 3 feet from his back. As I was loading I had a tray of federal 230grn ammo open with primer side up. All of a sudden the tray exploded right by my private parts and I jumped back about 2 feet to see what was now half a tray of ammo blown apart and live rounds everywhere.

Upon inspection we found out that the rim of one of his ejected cases bounced off the divider and landed perfectly on the primer of a round in the tray. We found the 45 slug on the table under the tray and it left a dent. The case must have ruptured and launched because we never found it.

I no longer load with open trays near other shooters now.

"Something must of hit the primer of one of the bullets," Bentley said. "The bullet stayed in the purse, but its casing put a hole in the purse and caused a minor leg wound."

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What set the primer off is still a mystery, and it would have to be a mighty flimsy purse or a very tiny wound, but at least they got this part right. Compared to the usual drivel, e.g., "a bullet fired straight up into the air will come down at the same speed at which it went up," this is actually rather refreshing.

Upon inspection we found out that the rim of one of his ejected cases bounced off the divider and landed perfectly on the primer of a round in the tray... The case must have ruptured and launched because we never found it.

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With no case to examine, how did you reach the conclusion that the primer had been impacted? Did the ejected case show some kind of evidence?

Ammo makers ship 500-rd and 1000-rd bulk packs of ammo in your choice of caliber. All piled in together in a jumble. Then UPS does their thing and it lands at your doorstep. Is there a problem, really?

my guess is that it was a rimfire round... anything larger would've caused a more serious injury, and the rim on a .22 is a lot more exposed (from more directions) than a centerfire round as well. A better question might be, WHY was she carrying loose ammo in her purse? Unfortunately, as per usual, the media-at-large are too uninformed to provide us with any better information.

a friend of mine, when he was about 13, decided to pull bullets to get the gunpowder to play with. rolleyes the easiest way to do this, of course, was to secure the rim in the vise on his dad's workbench, and... i takes surprisingly little force to set off a .22, apparently... nobody hurt (amazing, because his face was REALLY close) but he looked REALLY funny withpowder burns covering a good bit of his face. he wasn't laughing as hard as his brother and i, though... powder burns hurt.

Carl N. Brown said:

Remind me though never to substitute the contents of a woman's purse for proper polishing media.

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The contents of womens' purses is mostly for polishing themselves, not ammunition. Fact of the matter is, though, there's usually all sorts of sharp pointy things in there and, yes, occasionally batteries. It wouldn't have to be a rimfire to go off considering some of the messes I've seen in purses.

Not sayin' "impossible"; but damn near so !

1. Takes some serious impact energy to activate a centerfire primer. ( I.e. the "head" has to contact the anvil with sufficient force to activate the priming compound.) We've all experienced "light primer strikes" due to a variety of causes leading to a misfire.

2. RF cartridges are even more unlikely candidates as mfgs are extremely careful in compounding the priming mixture to insure the correct level of impact sensitivity.

3. I find it hard to believe any round - center or RF - activated outside of the confinement of a chamber can do more than go "poof" imparting near zero velocity to the bullet and far more likely to vent through a brass rupture/split.

4. Modern powders are deflegrant, not explosive, requiring confinement and temp/psi rise to perform. So an "unconfined AD" might result in a fire, but not, IMO, anything that would penetrate even a cloth purse let alone inflict a personal injury over distance through clothing. IOW, this account doesn't pass my personal "smell test" . >MW

Crazy story but I have no reason to doubt it happened. Now if they would have claimed the bullet went in her leg, down her bone, out her foot, and thru the floor, then I would have called BS.

Ive personally witnessed a 22lr go off in a back pocket of someone that fell on his butt.

When I was a little kid I found a .22lr round, brought it home and eventually left in our 1970's shag carpet. My Mom found it with the vacuum cleaner. I'm 43 and I still hear about it to this day