Taget shoots started fildfires?

[hightime]

I don't think I buy it. Do you?
Is it a subversive move to ban shooting. That's what they did. They banned shooting.

Owen

[MrMurphy]

Assuming your english means what I thought it meant........ not unheard of, though mostly from tracer ammunition.

Everytime we did machine gun quals, there were issues with small fires being lit from tracers and dry underbrush.


If a round (FMJ) hit a rock and sparked, the possibility would be low, but still possible.

[FWiedner]

I don't think I buy it. Do you?
Is it a subversive move to ban shooting. That's what they did. They banned shooting.

Owen

It 's been proven that some types of bullets striking some types of mineral surfaces can cause sparks that may lead to the ignition of combustibles.

Most recreational shooters and hunters don't use tracers when they target practice.

That said, it's a remote possiblitity, but not likely.

If the fires were 'set', it is a much more likely possibility that there are progressive enviro-whackos, out to demonstrate how evil and dangerous ordinary everyday people enjoying the outdoors can be, or federal forest and park service LEOs, at the root.

[COSteve]

Steel cased bullets, steel penetrators, and the spall from copper bullets striking steel can all cause sparks and sometimes fires. We've had issues with all three areas at our range over the last 5 years.

[getitdone1]

Shooting area in foothills not far from Hemet, CA--Forest Service requires you to call them any day you want to shoot. Some days they allow shooting only in the mornings. Some days--not at all.

If we had their experience of fighting fires and knowing the danger and losses that can occur I expect most of us would want to be real safe when it comes to possibly starting fires.

That area is my cup a tea and I appreciate them allowing me to shoot there.

Couple of weeks ago big fire in mountains not very far north of where I live here in Hemet. Don't believe any serious damage done.

Don

[jnyork]

Mostly idiots shooting AP, tracer, steel jacket and those "Dragon's Breath" fool things.

Ban idiots, not guns.

[Shasta]

Our local public shooting area is on Bureau of Land Management land backed by a steep hillside covered with rocky areas. There are fires here every summer, and I was witness to one just last week. They are invariably caused by someone shooting at big rocks on the hillside with some sort of military surplus rifle using surplus steel core ammunition. I never understood why they consider it good marksmanship or even sporting to hit a rock the size of an elephant only a couple hundred yards away.

BLM bans shooting after noon, but in this hot, dry area we still get fires. Usually after about the third one BLM bans shooting entirely until cooler weather arrives. Then I am forced to travel nearly 70 miles to a club range to shoot.

The problem is not so much the cheap military surplus ammunition, but people's inability to use common sense in choosing an appropriate target and/or backstop. For that, we all suffer the consequences.

SHASTA

[rjohns94]

So lead bullets won't start fires. Maybe California should reconsider the lead ban in condor zones?

[JHarold]

A article in our morning paper, Headlines: GUNS BLAMED FOR STARTING WILDFIRES IN PARCHED WEST. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

This year officials believe target shooting or other firearms use sparked at least 21 wildfires
in Utah and nearly a doxen in Idaho. Shooting is also believed to have caused fires in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

Statistics on wildfires caused by firearms are incomplete because the federal government does not list "shooting" as a cause on its fire reports.

Utah officials believe steel-jacketed bullets are the most likly culprits, given that one shot that hits a rock and throws off sparks can ignite surrounding vegetation and quickly spread.

Popular exploding targets are also blamed for causing wildfires.

In Utah, Republican Gov. Gary Herbert took the unusual step of authorizing the top state official it impose gun restrictions on public lands after a gunfire sparked fire.

[Don McDowell]

Yes shooting can and does cause fires especially in the tender dry conditions found throughout most of the highplains and rocky mountain region. A bullet striking a rock (even a lead bullet) can cause that rock to break and most times when rock is hard enough to shatter it's capable of causing sparks. Remember the cave men didn't have zippo lighters and peizo ignition for their fires.....
Common sense at this time can save millions of dollars and peoples homes and livelyhood....

[J Miller]

The problem is most people now can be medically diagnosed with LCS. ( Low Common Sense).
Ad to that you can't buy it on eBay, so most folks do without.

Joe

[AJMD429]

It is a SHAME we have to be so suspicious that some EnviroTard or no-guns-for-peasants type LEO would set fires just to make a case for anti-gun laws. . .

• . . . BUT THAT KIND OF THING DOES HAPPEN ALL THE TIME.

Having said that, I've seen lots of sparks when shooting the old water-heater tank we keep at the range as a 50-yard 'self-defense pistol' target. I'm not sure if they were just 'military' ammo or not; I've seen the sparks so often I'm thinking they are often from regular bullets as well.

[vancelw]

I thought I read somewhere that tannerite was being blamed for at least one of these fires. The youtube videos I've seen show more flames than I would have believed, if I hadn't of seen the videos for myself.

I also didn't used to think lead would spark, but buckshot will definitely throw sparks off of steel targets I've seen that myself. It would have to be really dry for sparks to start a wildfire, but it is really dry now.

We average 45 inches of rain a year, but I expect us to have burn bans by next week. Two or three years of good growth in the spring backed by dry summers provide a heavy fuel load.

[Griff]

This idiot did pretty good by using a shotgun: http://www.thesmokin...est-fire-879543. Wasn't target shooting, per se... but shooting without regard to consequences.

[Old Ironsights]

ALL of the shooting related fires I've been around have come from one of 3 sources:

Smoldering Patches &/or other unburnt stuff from MLs,
People firing prone in tall grass while shooting a flamethrower load, or
Tracers.

The first two start closeup fires that are easy to extinguish, the last burnt several thousand acres at Camp Guernsey

I've never seen a round throw sparks that started a grassfire.

[Mich Hunter]

Well, I know one fire just west of where I live in Colorado Springs (not the Waldo fire) was started by a couple guys shooting at propane tanks. It's been a very dry winter/springs so it doesn't take much

[Alan Wood]

Here is a link to the article mentioned by Griff that works. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/ ... ire-879543

[Old Ironsights]

Well, I know one fire just west of where I live in Colorado Springs (not the Waldo fire) was started by a couple guys shooting at propane tanks. It's been a very dry winter/springs so it doesn't take much

That would do it.

But I also don't consider shooting at stuff like that to be regular "target shooting" either...

[dennie]

Perhaps the proper way to shoot gas tanks would be for one shooter to go down range and hold the tank in front of their chest while the other shooter fires at it. Actually surprised someone hasn't done this on YouTube yet. Would work for tannerite also.
dennie