Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire In Your Opinion... What Happened? Ammo Detonation

Ammo was still in factory box.

It was in a larger box as the guy was moving to another house. Box was on kitchen counter, and when his son picked up the box, the detonation occurred.

His son wasn't hurt, but scared the hell out of both of them.

Here's the photos the law firm sent me for my opinion.





Box. You can see the tears in the box from detonation.



What say you?

What caused this?

Odd, primer looks as if it has been hit by something. Case split would be normal firing not chambered.

Sure does look like the primer was hit.

If no one was hurt, why's there a law firm involved?

For comparison, here's a Herter's round of mine made by Sellier and Bellot for Cabela's.

You know how people are today...

They run everything by a lawyer now.

I've had two 22's go off.

One hitting with a claw hammer on a tree stump.

The other, I was using a torch in close to the ground.

LOUD!

Barry, can you get a better pic of the primer on the discharged round?

I did the hammer thing once when I was a kid.

Caught a nice sharp piece of case shrapnel in my thumb as reward...

Looks like a clear photo of the primer and nose of the bullet would be a help . Where were the bullet and case found?

Sorry, you guys see what I was sent.

That happened when the box got dropped, not when it got picked up.

From what I was told, both the case and bullet were blown out of the box. You can see rips in the box top. I think the bullet hit the granite counter.

I imagine the case was the more dangerous projectile of the two.

I'd like to see the other rounds in the box. That primer looks to have been pressed, as in reloaded. I've seen that type of mark when primers are hard to seat.

Static electricity spark?

Bruce

I'll let you guys know what opinion I rendered after some more discussion here happens.

I suggest that something smacked thar primer. IF it really went down the way the plaintiff is saying, then there must have been something in that box of ammo that shouldn't have been there. A ball of #6 shot, possibly? Maybe they're not being straight about it...maybe the kid was actually "setting it down" (and not so gently) rather than picking it up. Whatever the case may be, I think it went off because the primer was struck.

If it's for legal purposes you'll need a better photo.

Looks like they did when we would tape marbles to the back of a loaded round and throw it up in the air in a parking lot. Most didn't go off because they didn't land right but when they did the case looked like that and the bullet didn't go very far. Ammo doesn't get much speed without chamber support and a bit of barrel.

Bb

Probably untrimmed flash (errant splastic from molding) on the plastic carrier directly under the shell that detonated.