Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Firearms and wildfires?

I have never heard of a cup and core bullet or a mono all copper starting a fire. Now military surplus steel bullets... All of the local ranges (Public ones) use a magnet to check bullets/ammo. Always 223/5.56 & 7.62 are the problems. Been years since I have seen 30-06 or 8mm Mauser with steel tipped bullets. The steel ones WILL spark. Of course tracers..

I was shooting crows with a .22-250 Ruger many years ago, was laid down prone resting the rifle on a duffle bag, the muzzle blast set fire to the dead grass field and l had to jump up and stomp it out in a hurry. Not a bullet caused fire though.

I've seen normal, everyday bullets make a spark when hitting rocks at first or last light, but that's it.

I've started fires with tracers, but they're far from "normal" bullets and/or ammo. I know of at least one fire a couple years ago in Wyoming started by Tannerite.

I know of several fires started by car exhaust pipes on the grass and even came across what I have to assume was a naturally smoking and smoldering tree stump covered in embers. I have no idea how to explain why it was so hot, as it was on a riverbank with ice cold water all around it, but it was.

Never a non-tracer bullet itself though.

we were plinking in the desert many years ago with our SKSs and steel core. Saw the smoke and we just managed to get it out before it became too big.

I read somewhere that copper bullets are more likely to start fires than cup and core. Can't remember where.

I can't see it happening with copper or copper alloys. Copper alloys are used for non-sparking tools because they don't spark. I've certainly never seen of heard of a case of one setting a fire, and we get some days where you could start a fire with a harsh look here.

Steel I'm prepared to believe, though I think you'd be unlucky, and it isn't what I'd choose for a hunting bullet. Tracer I definitely believe, because I've seen it start fires quite a number of times. I remember one shoot in particular when I was in military service, where we had repeated stoppages of play to go downrange and put the fires out.

The catalytic converter under the vehicle you drive is another potential source, and there have been a few fires here from dry grass etc around one of these.

There again AFAIK the two major sources of bushfires here are lightning and arsonists

The US Forest Service study quoted above shows copper as being ABOVE steel core and or jackets in it's fire starting ability. Must have something to do with particle temperatures after impact. The British, greatest navy in the world in the days of black powder (the most easily ignited powder of all) used copper implements to handle black powder.

Of course tracers will cause fires. Hell, they're on fire when you pull the trigger. But you have no business hunting with Tracers.

As for brass or copper causing sparks I still think it's Bunny Hugger BS.

My Grandfather used to light floating brush piles on the Tanana river on fire with a .30 Browning machinegun. Probably tracers I would imagine.

Last time I was at the range, we had a grass fire.

No one was shooting steel target, or steel core bullets nor anything other than paper targets.

Best we can tell a hot bullets glanced off the berm with just enough energy to make it to the dry grass on the other side, with enough heat energy to start that tinder box.

We knocked it down with shovels and rakes before the fire department arrived, keeping it on the clubs property and out of the neighbors crops.

So, I can tell you from first hand experience that grass fires can ignite from just the heat energy of a conventional bullet.

Not a physicist, but I would imagine a lead slug stepping along at 3 to 4,000 fps might generate a little heat when it comes to an instant stop. Might even turn into molten lead which is warm enough to ignite a lot of materials.

A little surfing found:
According to research by FLIR (manufacturer of thermal imagers) the surface temperature of a fired bullet is up to 500°F. ... The specific heat of lead is 0.13 J/g , so if all of its energy was converted to heat (by deformation impacting an infinitely hard target) that 200gr = 13g bullet could gain something like 1400°C

A recent brush fire around here was allegedly started by yokels shooting tracers, I beleve on Lake Belton, not sure.

Tracers will do it every time.

When the country gets really dry in late summer/early fall, it doesn't take much to start a fire in grass. I won't shoot a centerfire into anything but bare dirt with no vegetation nearby under those conditions, and am careful where I shoot my .22 as well. Tannerite is a no go unless there is snow on the ground. My dad said the old paper shotgun shells with felt or paper wads were good for starting fires too. I suspect the newer plastic shells/wads are lots safer....but I didn't go bird hunting first weekend because here in eastern MT it was dry as hell and Montana already had several fires...didn't need to start another one.

Back in the sixties I was shooting a .44 Magnum revolver, using Elmer Keith's 250 grain SWC that I had cast myself. I had used Lyman's black bullet lube when sizing and lubricating the bullets, and they were loaded over 22.0 grains of 2400, just like Elmer used to do. I was shooting at a paper target mounted on the face of several bales of hay.

After firing 50 rounds or so, I noticed smoke coming the hay. I tore the bale apart and found it was smoldering inside, right where the bullets were hitting. I could only conclude that the bullet lube was hot enough to ignite the hay. First and only time I ever experienced something like this, but it made me more careful when shooting cast bullets into anything that resembled tinder.

Rock against rock can make a spark.

Any bullet can knock a rock against a rock.

Bruce