Ejecting / Dropping .22 LR - Safety Concern?

CaptainDC

CaptainDC

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Pardon me if this has been covered ad nauseam in other threads, I searched and didn't find what I was looking for.
My question is this: Is it safe to eject a live .22 round and let it fall to concrete, rocky surfaces, etc. ?
I'm NOT asking about: dropping full cases of ammo, dropping loaded firearms, nor hitting rimfire cartridges with a hammer, launching them into the air with a slingshot or drinking straw and letting them fall back to earth, throwing them into a fire or any other of the more ridiculous ways that folks have made rimfire cartridges explode / fire negligently or on purpose.
Just want to know if I need to be paranoid about drops due to fumbling a round when loading a mag or ejecting to prove a firearm safe.
Thanks!
 
I wouldn't worry about it. I've definitely fat fingered dozens of 22 rounds onto surfaces including concrete, gravel, mud, grass, cow poop, etc. Still alive. As a steel challenge RO/match director, I've also witnessed hundreds of 22 rounds ejected onto gravel. Not one has gone off. Takes a lot more than that.
 
Extremely dangerous. In fact you should make sure your cartridges always remain upright and that you use gloves to avoid the oils from your hands penetrating through the brass and mixing with the powder and prematurely igniting it.
 
btabin said:
Extremely dangerous. In fact you should make sure your cartridges always remain upright and that you use gloves to avoid the oils from your hands penetrating through the brass and mixing with the powder and prematurely igniting it.
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I approve of this post!

Yup. OH NOES! ITS DANGEROUS!!!!!




For de forks sake....
 
Thanks for sharing your experience, I appreciate it. I've never owned a rimfire before, started out with centre-fires almost twenty years ago and didn't do anything else... until now. Heard all kinds of urban legends and haven't had any hands-on experience yet so I thought I'd hit up the forum. Your post was helpful.
Scotty454 said:
I wouldn't worry about it. I've definitely fat fingered dozens of 22 rounds onto surfaces including concrete, gravel, mud, grass, cow poop, etc. Still alive. As a steel challenge RO/match director, I've also witnessed hundreds of 22 rounds ejected onto gravel. Not one has gone off. Takes a lot more than that.
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Dropping a .22 rim fire round on hard concrete will not cause it to fire. The round needs a portion of the rim to be driven into the other side of the rim which would need to be supported in order for the priming mixture to ignite. This will never happen by dropping it on a floor of any type.
 
Fair question for the OP to ask and as always; "safety first". But no, I don't think there is anything to be concerned about. If you love your barrel, you might choose not to USE and rounds that have hit the dirt.

It takes far more to set-off a rimfire round, and even if it were able to fall far enough/fast enough to smack the rim...it has a 40gr chunk of lead on the opposite end...and gravity calls the shots. :)
 
considering the failure rates of some cheap bulk brands to ignite when hit with the firing pin in the firearm, I doubt fumbling it or ejecting would ever set off a 22 .
 
Yep, the rim has to not only dented but crushed. Dropping it won't do that. Metallic cartridges were originally called 'safety cartridges' - no exposed powder, and the primer is essentially protected.
 
Of greater concern would be the lubricant picking up a small piece of grit and then firing the round.
Almost as bad as someone using the rounds that were in the dud collection can.
 
I'd be concerned with both the dirt picked up, as said above, and the primer getting knocked loose from the rim. Especially if dropped on concrete. I've seen many FTFs in low-priced rounds that were a mes of loose primer. see pic
HTR-dump-2.jpg
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The only one I've ever had go off outside of the chamber of a firearm was one that detonated in my pocket because I also had a 9v battery in there (unbeknownst to me). After some impromptu experimentation my kid brother and I discovered that by laying a .22LR cartridge over the posts of the 9v it would go off in about 60 seconds or so, while a .30-30 took about 5 minutes.

Yeah - I'm basically a scientist... LOL
 
All good info here, thanks everybody. I'll make sure I wipe off and inspect any ejected / dropped rounds before chambering them again and my big takeaway is a way better instant understanding of how rimfire cartridges actually work.
 
once upon a time out of curiosity when i was young and fool hardy, i thought id do a lil test. 50 round box of 22 shells. down the paved road at 60 mph and dropped one at a time out the window as i sped along. none went off. i was kinda dissapointed, so did it again with another box full, same result. so no, dropping from 4 feet to the ground it will not go off
 
If you do drop in cow crap, do not chamber them, unless you shoot Turkish gun.
I have been dropping them on hard floors for way to damn long. never hurt one yet.
 
mudgunner49 said:
After some impromptu experimentation my kid brother and I discovered that by laying a .22LR cartridge over the posts of the 9v it would go off in about 60 seconds or so, while a .30-30 took about 5 minutes.

Yeah - I'm basically a scientist... LOL
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Lol... you KNOW some of us are going to try that, right?
 
Chilly807 said:
Lol... you KNOW some of us are going to try that, right?
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That's some pretty old news to a lot of us, that there.

If you want it to happen faster, use jumper cables. Fun Fact! Fine steel wool will wreck your jeans better than live ammo will, if shorted across a battery!

If you habitually carry a spare 9v battery in your pocket with loose ammo, you may get the experience and risk, mostly, being distracted by the event, possibly a minor fire if you have a bunch of lint around too...
 
If it was "ultra" dangerous, I would be dead by now, or at least a few ounce heavier due to lead shrapnel... I would hate to hazard a guess at how many rounds of .22 LR I have dropped over my life.
 
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