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This reminds me of the experiments the SAMI conducted 10 yrs ago about the danger of exploding ammo in a fire.  The result was there was no real danger to firefighters in their normal protective gear.   

Here's a link to SAMI's experiment: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Wayne

Loose ammo in a fire is one thing. Loaded firearms in a fire are a completely different hazard! Loaded weapons in a fire will eventually get hot enough to self ignite, and then they're as hazardous as if they were conventionally fired.
I have a Marlin lever action hanging over one of my gun safes that went through a fire. The lever is open, and a fired case it bent and mangled halfway out of the chamber. It got hot enough to fire, and that somehow blew the bolt back and opened the lever. But appears it was hot enough to cause the brass to stick as it blew the lever open.
There were 8 guns in this house fire, and the gunsmith who gave me this one was asked if he could save them, but wisely told the customer it wasn't a good idea.

Brass fragments from cartridges may pose a greater risk than the heavier projectiles.

Many years ago I was stuck by a piece of brass from an unseen 30-06 cartridge in a fire pit that went off - went right though a leather boot and left me bleeding like a stuck pig!
For the rest of my life I will never blindly trust a fire pit without thoroughly checking it!

I, I'll blame myself, somehow wound up throwing a 410 shell in the trash. It wound up in the fireplace out in the patio. There was a 'whump', and the now empty case flew about halfway across the patio. Being a D-A kid, I threw it back in. The primer then went off with a bang, and flung it all the way across the patio.

Never seen a brass case cooked off, but I suspect it wouldn't be much different. The case is going to be the most likely projectile. Might raise a bruise, unless it hit you in the eye.

wesg wrote on Dec 30^th, 2022 at 7:16pm:


When I was young (and boy do I miss those days) my Dad would bring home firewood from anywhere he could find it…as long as it was free.

I spent a LOT of time swinging a maul at wedges, splitting wood in the backyard. Dad worked at Stanford University, and the campus was covered with eucalyptus trees. Whenever one split, maintenance would cut down the whole tree, and they were good enough to cut the rounds fireplace size. Splitting that stuff was miserable, it was very stringy, like splitting oak but much worse.

Somehow amidst  all this scrounged wood, a .30-06 shell found its way into fireplace. And no I had nothing to do with it.

That round cooked off with a bang and shot the base of the shell into my Mom’s face, hit her right over her eye and below the eyebrow. Somehow that became my fault, and when the screaming stopped, they realized from my white-faced stuttering that I had nothing to do with it.

She had a heck of a shiner for a few days, and I was assigned to inspecting each and every log from there on for “bullets”. Could have been much worse…..