Landmine

Primers today are meant to be removed - except for Boxer Primers. That's so you can reload. In a .22 rimfire, the primer is inside the edge and they can't be reloaded. All primers are static electricity sensitive and that is why the casings are brass. They protect from a static charge 100%.

Primers and powder will both cook off in a campfire, for example. But the bullet and brass won't necessarily depart the fire. All of the ashes, bits of sticks and such will go flying out rapidly but the much heavier brass and lead might not. I said MIGHT not. Sometimes they do have bits fall off that become shrapnel. In order for a bullet to take off in a rapid manner, the explosion must be contained in the breech and the gasses must burn through the barrel to send the bullet on its way. Without a breech, you normally rupture the cartridge and the bullet might move a few feet at most. More dangerous is the ruptured case.

And there you have it in a nutshell. Those old bullets are not inert but they won't go off just because you jiggled them or even if you puncture them. You have to slam the primer very hard to get them to go off. It's not a good idea to try.

I'm going to add a disclaimer here that nobody should try anything like this in practice. From this moment on, Darwin is in charge of your fate.

Posted on: February 25, 2013, 10:56:41 PM

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		Quote:			Posted by xavier
	probably by trying to remove the head, head facing down and pinching some of the explosives inside, that could set it off

This is why they use a bullet remover that uses inertia to remove a bullet from a cartridge. Yes, there is a tool just for that purpose. It grips the bullet and you bang it on a hard surface. The bullet releases from the neck of the case and the case can then be emptied and rendered inert by putting the powderless case into a gun and "popping" the primer. Most of them coming from the ground can't be done that way.

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Well, BA, someone had to test it. Out of pure curiosity, I dropped a few into a fire one by one with a Sony Camcorder recording the results while we hid behind large objects. Digging through the fire pit later tuned up much the same as yours did. Ruptured casings and even one primer still intact. Probably burned but the primer bar was still there.

The point is that it takes a lot to set off bullets that have been dug from the ground. Or new ones from a box, for that matter.

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