# How in the world???



## ckamanao (Mar 20, 2010)

Can someone please explain to me how shooters cause fires. I thought that nearly every bullet was made of lead and copper. And as far as I know, regardless of what is seen on tv, neither of those two materials can cause a spark. Maybe if someone was shooting steel shot at clay pigeons...that might be arguable. But maybe I'm dumb and just don't know. Someone, anyone, please. Educate me. :?


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Well, you're right, lead/copper and other non-Ferrous (non steel or iron) bullets/shot do not spark and won't cause fires. I never have seen anybody blaming shotgunners for starting fires except with camp fires and cigarette butts. BUT, steel bullets, tracer, and even incendiary rounds can and do cause fires and are used all the time by shooters everywhere. Also the use of exploding targets could also start grass aburnin. Common sense when out shooting is the answer. Use your head. Dry grass burns really good.


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## Moostickles (Mar 11, 2010)

ckamanao said:


> Someone, anyone, please. Educate me. :?


Spot on, the media and all the groups out there trying to restrict shooting areas are the ones that need to be educated.

Lead and copper do not cause fires, and I don't think steel shot hitting clays would do it either. The only thing I can think of that can start fires is tracer rounds which is already illegal on public land.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

UtahHuntingDirect said:


> ckamanao said:
> 
> 
> > Someone, anyone, please. Educate me. :?
> ...


Are you suggesting that shooters don't cause fires and that shooters don't need education about the use of steel and other types of ammo that can and do cause fires? That it is just a mean spirited conspiracy by the anti gunners and the evil media that is the cause of the grass fires we have every summer? 
Now, I am not saying that shooters cause all the fires, or that they cause a lot of fires, but they do cause some fires and education of the shooters is important and, by the way, all we can do. You're not going to change the anti-shooters ideas through education. Iam just suggesting we keep our own house clean and not give the wacko anti-shooters...no pun intended here...any ammo to use.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

I know the Herriman fire a couple years back was started by a live fire exercise by the good folks at Camp Williams, and they were using tracer rounds. 

And just because tracer rounds are illegal on public lands, doesn't mean that folks aren't using them. Same goes with shooting targets that go "boom" or make fireballs. Go to some of the common shooting areas around and see how many propane bottles and tanks, aresol cans, batteries, old TV and computer monitors, etc.... you'll find. AND, so I can make sure I perpetuate the stereo types here, guys that careless to use such targets are probably just as careless with campfires, cigarettes, flares, fireworks, etc..... Careless and disrespectful people usually don't discriminate what they are careless about. So their bullets may not cause fires, but the shooters other actions sure can/do. 

BPTurkeys nailed it - keep our own house clean and we've got nothing to worry about.


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## stimmie78 (Dec 8, 2007)

All of my 7.62x54R ammo is steel core... I'm sure if I hit a rock just right it could spark... But that's why I just choose shooting locations with a big bare dirt hill as the back stop.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

My experience in watching people (especially out by Pelican Point) is that they bring ridiculous things to shoot and cause fires by what they are shooting.

Case in point: about a year ago I saw a guy shooting those little green propane Coleman seated next to a small fire... it made a big fireball and sent the propane can flying off into the bushes. Smart?


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## Moostickles (Mar 11, 2010)

BPturkeys said:


> Are you suggesting that shooters don't cause fires and that shooters don't need education about the use of steel and other types of ammo that can and do cause fires? That it is just a mean spirited conspiracy by the anti gunners and the evil media that is the cause of the grass fires we have every summer?
> Now, I am not saying that shooters cause all the fires, or that they cause a lot of fires, but they do cause some fires and education of the shooters is important and, by the way, all we can do. You're not going to change the anti-shooters ideas through education. I am just suggesting we keep our own house clean and not give the wacko anti-shooters...no pun intended here...any ammo to use.


Not at all. Shooters can shart fires when they are not following the law and/or being irresponsible. Shooting regular ammunition at paper, cans, rocks, etc. will not start a fire as the media has so often portrayed it. It's the guys who go out and shoot tracers, propane tanks, and other things that are not legal to shoot on public land. The problem is that the media rarely explains this. The headlines have a tendency to say, "Shooter Starts a Fire West of Utah Lake," and clumps all of us, responsible and irresponsible, in the same group. That is what I meant by saying they need to be educated.

I agree with you 100% though, we need to clean up after ourselves and also the others who don't. To be honest, when I drive out to Pelican Point, I can't really blame them for wanting to shut the area down to shooters. It's pretty sad what the irresponsible ones have left out there.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Just go to any area that is free where people shoot and you will see the junk these Tards bring out and shoot. Most of it is flammable and all of it looks like ******* trash! Its no wonder there being shut down or looked down on.


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

stimmie78 said:


> All of my 7.62x54R ammo is steel core... I'm sure if I hit a rock just right it could spark... But that's why I just choose shooting locations with a big bare dirt hill as the back stop.


I agree stimmie, steel core bullets striking a rock just right can throw a spark. My neighbor, who happens to be a Logan City fire marshall, was camping and doing some shooting up Blacksmith Fork using only surplus 7.62x54R steel cored ammo when the hillside caught fire. Fortunately, they were able to beat out the flames with their shirts before the fire spread too far. It still burned over an acre and they were lucky to keep it contained.


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## Doc (Sep 11, 2007)

I learned at a very early age shooting can cause fires! Over 45 years ago my brother and I were shooting matches in the air out of our BB guns. They would come down on the gravel road and often light. :twisted: One match (obviously shot by my brother) landed in the cheat grass covered area and happened to hit a small rock. It burned from the road to the ditch bank and from our house to the neighbors house 1/4 mile away. Got a whoppin out of that one.

And yes, steel core ammo (AK 47) will spark when it hits a rock and can cause a fire. Saw it happen but the guys were prepared and put it out. Conditions were not extremely dry either.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

Doc said:


> I learned at a very early age shooting can cause fires! Over 45 years ago my brother and I were shooting matches in the air out of our BB guns. They would come down on the gravel road and often light. :twisted: One match (obviously shot by my brother) landed in the cheat grass covered area and happened to hit a small rock. It burned from the road to the ditch bank and from our house to the neighbors house 1/4 mile away. Got a whoppin out of that one.


 -_O- -_O- You know, I thought I figured out, and tried, just about everything you could do with lucifers, but shootin'm out of a BB gun never crossed my mind. Thanks for sharing that little bit of "back in the old days" humor.


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## Doc (Sep 11, 2007)

You probably know all about spoke guns then? :O•-:


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Doc said:


> You probably know all about spoke guns then? :O•-:


Now you are getting back to the good old days.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Our favorite was to catch those little green grasshoppers and stick them head first into the end of the bb gun and shoot it.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

GaryFish said:


> Our favorite was to catch those little green grasshoppers and stick them head first into the end of the bb gun and shoot it.


Kind of like the cannon guy at the circus...

We used to twist cotton on the blunt end of shish kebab skewers ram them down the barrel and shoot them like darts... Same thing as a "spoke gun"?


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

willfish4food said:


> We used to twist cotton on the blunt end of shish kebab skewers ram them down the barrel and shoot them like darts... Same thing as a "spoke gun"?


That's a different type of "spoke gun" than I used to make.

We actually took a spoke some powder and a bb out of a shotgun shell along with a couple other things and actually shot a #6 bb out of the spoke gun.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

Critter said:


> willfish4food said:
> 
> 
> > We used to twist cotton on the blunt end of shish kebab skewers ram them down the barrel and shoot them like darts... Same thing as a "spoke gun"?
> ...


Well that sounds WAY cooler than what we did... I want my childhood back! :lol:


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## Doc (Sep 11, 2007)

A spoke gun was a miniature smooth bore gun made from a spoke (That's all I will say about it). My brother loaded one so "hot" it split the barrel into three sections, it's lucky we all have both our eyes intact.

One kid in the "neighborhood" made one after he saw us make it and had it blow up in his hand. His parents forbade him from coming over to our house after that. But let's not hijack this thread.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

I never did the spoke gun, although sounds like ton of fun. We did make these "break out a window at 200 yards" beauties although. You take a 2 or 3 foot length of 1/2 " conduit, thread a 1/2 pipe cap, with a hole drilled into it, on the end (no threader needed as the hard cap threads would cut right into the soft conduit), stick the fuse of a firecracker out the hole, roll a marble down the end of the conduit, and touch 'er off. I would make a couple of these little guys every summer. 
Seems like nothing excited a young boys imagination like a pack of fresh from Evanston WY firecrackers.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

BPturkeys said:


> I never did the spoke gun, although sounds like ton of fun. We did make these "break out a window at 200 yards" beauties although. You take a 2 or 3 foot length of 1/2 " conduit, thread a 1/2 pipe cap, with a hole drilled into it, on the end (no threader needed as the hard cap threads would cut right into the soft conduit), stick the fuse of a firecracker out the hole, roll a marble down the end of the conduit, and touch 'er off. I would make a couple of these little guys every summer.
> Seems like nothing excited a young boys imagination like a pack of fresh from Evanston WY firecrackers.


I used to make those too! They really sent marbles flying!


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## Last Man Standing (Dec 7, 2011)

GaryFish said:


> I know the Herriman fire a couple years back was started by a live fire exercise by the good folks at Camp Williams, and they were using tracer rounds.


Yeah, it wasn't the army or the marines either, it was the national guard 



Bax* said:


> My experience in watching people (especially out by Pelican Point) is that they bring ridiculous things to shoot and cause fires by what they are shooting.
> 
> Case in point: about a year ago I saw a guy shooting those little green propane Coleman seated next to a small fire... it made a big fireball and sent the propane can flying off into the bushes. Smart?


Ummmm..... no not smart at all, but hella fun! haha I've never done it but "a friend of mine" has  Not at pelican point, that's just plain old stupid, that whole place is just beggin' to burn. My "friend" did it on private property in a 50 foot hole made out of rock with almost no plant cover within 50 yards. A little safer, but still, sketchy. The tanks take off like rockets and have zero predictability. One went within 2 feet of my head and punched a sizable dent into solid rock. Propane bombs are definitely on the unsafe list.


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## 90redryder (Oct 10, 2011)

I exchanged words with a few retarded gangster wannabe kids out at pelican point this weekend. Those fools were shooting across the road at a blind corner, I came atop the hill in my truck driving down a perfectly good road only to find a fool with a gun pointed my way. Boy did that ever tick me off. Its these type of idiots that give us gun enthusiasts a bad name and cause problems when they are out shooting. You arent ever going to change the mindset of those types of people, but if you teach a youngster how to be responsible with a gun and keep it clean that is what will make a difference.


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## MadHunter (Nov 17, 2009)

willfish4food said:


> Well that sounds WAY cooler than what we did... I want my childhood back! :lol:


Then by all means take it back. I don't have sons, I have 5 daughters. So I have made it a duty as old child to teach my little nephew and eventually my 6 month old grandson everything I learned as a younger child.

So far my wife has yelled at me and so has my brother and sister in law. I don't care. The smile on that kids face is priceless. If my brother forgot how to be a child....too flipp'n bad! back to the topic....

I have run into some of those gang bangers wannabe guys and yes they do all sorts of stupid things. I actually saw some other guy running after a clay pidgeon he missed and shot it where it landed amoungst the grass. Now that can certainly light a fire!


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## Last Man Standing (Dec 7, 2011)

MadHunter said:


> Then by all means take it back. I don't have sons, I have 5 daughters. So I have made it a duty as old child to teach my little nephew and eventually my 6 month old grandson everything I learned as a younger child.
> 
> So far my wife has yelled at me and so has my brother and sister in law. I don't care. The smile on that kids face is priceless. If my brother forgot how to be a child....too flipp'n bad!


Hahaha that's great  That's the way it is with my nephew. My sister would never teach him how to be responsible with guns, so I might as well.



MadHunter said:


> I have run into some of those gang bangers wannabe guys and yes they do all sorts of stupid things. I actually saw some other guy running after a clay pidgeon he missed and shot it where it landed amoungst the grass. Now that can certainly light a fire!


 I have seen so many people out there do this sort of thing. Just runnin out downrange from people who are still shootin just to get one they missed. I dunno if lead shot against a pigeon sittin on the dirt would start a fire, but dumb nonetheless.


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