TX: Twelve-year-old Boy Ignites .22 Cartridge with Cigarette Lighter

Gun Watch ^ | 19 June, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In the story out of Texas, the boy's mother drives him to the hospital.  The deputy interviewing the young man found out how he was injured.  From thevindicator.com:

Deputy Hobson stated that upon interviewing the young man as to how he got injured from the bullet, the young boy told Dep. Hobson that he had held a cigarette lighter under a .22 caliber bullet to see what would happen. The bullet exploded sending bullet fragments through his left middle finger and lodging in the left eye lid.

There are a couple of lessons here.   The first is not to try to set off cartridges outside of a firearm in close proximity to your flesh.   A .22 does not have a lot of gunpowder in it, but it is enough to cause minor injuries if it is in contact with flesh when it goes off.  If you are more than five feet away from it when it happens, presuming that it is not contained in the chamber of a firearm, your risk is minimal.   Surprisingly, the tiny .22 rimfire seems to entail a bit more risk than centerfire cartridges.   The case is very thin and light, and is more likely to rupture or develop enough velocity to be dangerous. 

While we do not know exactly what happened, a .22 case and bullet, being made of metal, transmit heat very effectively.  I suspect that the boy was using something to hold the cartridge to avoid being burned.  Even a pair of pliers or a a few wraps of tape might have been enough to provide some support for the case and make the resulting ignition more dangerous.  I have heard of people who put the .22 cartridge in a vice and hit the base with a hammer.  That is a dangerous procedure.

In another article on fires and ammunition, a source on an Internet forum reported that he had experience of a fragment that barely punctured the skin at a range of less than five feet from a .22 rimfire case that was ignited in a fire.  He concluded that any other cases were too sturdy to fragment.  Here is a Link to the SAAMI paper, "Facts About Sporting Ammunition Fires".

40 or more years ago a fellow told me he touched a match to some homemade gunpowder to see if it would go off.   He lost his eyebrows and burned his hand a bit, but suffered no permanent injury.    Young males are adventurous, curious, and willing to take risks.   We can guide them and attempt to channel that energy; but suppressing it can result in more harm than good.  An amusing web site could result from the theme: Silly risks I took as a boy/young man.

As the "fragment" in question (almost certainly from the case and not the bullet) lodged in the boy's eyelid, it seems likely that the eye itself is not at risk.

Eyes are the most vulnerable parts of the body to these sorts of projectiles, which is why wearing safety/shooting glasses of some kind has become a regular part of most shooters' gear.  

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[fulltlt]

I gave my boys pocket knives when they were around 4. One of them cut up everything from bed sheets to his Bible. We called him “cutter boy”.

[fulltlt]

Ever try smashing a whole roll of caps for a cap gun all at once with a hammer on concrete?

If you ever do I suggest wearing hearing protection.

[Texas resident]

Paul Harvey ran a story that was similar to this.
Two men were driving in a truck at night. The fuse that controls the headlights went out. So they stuck a .22 round in the fuse holder. After about 20 minutes, the round went off and hit the driver in the lower leg. So his truck shot him.

Paul Harvey..................................Good Day.

[Big Red Badger]

Dang,,,
or bang!

[slouper]

“For me it was match heads stuffed into an empty CO2 cartridge, ignited and then dropped into a 2 foot length of galvanized pipe stuck in the ground. Those projectiles went quite aways. Looking back I’m amazed I lived through it.

But damn it was FUN!”

Funny you mention that. We used to stuff match heads into ping pong balls and wrap them tightly in duct tape. We would go to an empty parking lot at night and throw them into the air as high as we could and run. When they hit the ground they bounced and made a magnificent starburst about 6 ft off the ground. These had to be handled with care though as one exploded in my hands at the breakfast table just as I was stuffing in that last match head. Still have the burn scars on my arms to show for it. Had a hard time explaining to mom & dad what that smell was and why all the burn holes in the linoleum.

Never did it again.

[heartwood]

My four year old daughter did that with a pair of tweezers, no burns fortunately. A year later, her older brother who certainly remembered what his sister had done and knew a good deal about electricity and its dangers, pulled a plug out of an outlet just far enough to drop a penny on its prongs. He didn’t get shocked, just saw a really cool flash as the house went dark.

[heartwood]

Better get on home so your wife doesn’t have to open the door to the Homeland Security folks.

[Zeppo]

Just in case anybody is thinking of drilling into a (highly-compressed) liquid-center golf ball to see what’s inside, don’t do it. Or if you do, at least be wearing glasses at the time, like the ten-year-old me was.

[TangoLimaSierra]

I did constant homemade gunpowder experiments, none of which resulted in a useable product. Hint: mix by weight, not volume, and use real lump charcoal, not the Kingsford bricketts.

I did, too. Potassium nitrate, charcoal, sulfur and sugar. Worked well. We destroyed a lot of army men, and ship models.

[TangoLimaSierra]

One of them cut up everything from bed sheets to his Bible. We called him “cutter boy”.

Is his middle name Lee?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I dropped a 9 volt battery into my pocket a few years ago. I also had several quarters in there.

A few minutes later I jumped as something in my pocket got HOT real fast. Never again. I’ve always heard that money can burn a hole in your pocket if you don’t spend it quick.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

**one eyed 60 something men around these days.**

I almost fit that description 58 years ago when I was hit just below the left eye with a home made arrow. 1/2 inch higher and I would look be wearing a patch.

I am a firm believer in GOD. Otherwise I should have been snake bit, burned to death, killed, chopped, crushed, blown up. What other reason than divine power could have prevented me from surviving all these stupid things I did as a youth?

[libstripper]

My dog didn’t get the kiss cure; he just got laughed at. Never tried it with the kitty again.

[Lorianne]

A good example of why young males have a higher death/injury rate than young females. Curiosity is good, but common sense is a good skill to evolve as well.

Darwin award statistics bear this out.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

We did that once, with a razor blade. ONCE!

[Syntyr]

“We destroyed a lot of army men, and ship models. “

Ohhhhh Army Men... I destroyed LEIGONS of Army Men.

Some took part in homemade napalm tests
Some died covering grenades (firecrackers)
Some broke the sound barrier in hot wheels with model rocket engines glued to them
Some went in to outspace in my backyard space program

You name it we burned, cooked, exploded, shot, cut up, bashed it with a hammer.

I remember one summer my dad had purchased a huge load of fireworks for the 4th. Well I was out of school and couldn’t wait so I kept sneaking rockets out of the pack and launching them. Well I was out front and had just light a rocket when I looked up and there was a police helipcopter flying over head.

Well at this point time just sort of froze. I looked at t helicopter and then back at the rocket, then back at the helicopter and then back at the rocket. All the while my mind was screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Well that and a newly learned profanity... I was 9...

The whole time my mind was yelling at my body DO SOMETHING! Finally I decided to knock the rocket over and my body started to move. By the time I lifted m first foot togo kick the rocket over it was too late. The rocket was moving just as the police helicopter was traveling over head.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH the rocket went like a heat seeking missle and my inner voice went PROFANNNIIITYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY with it. That rocket went like it was on rails right toward that helicopter. BOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM and I was already running!

I spent the rest of the summer hiding in my room convinced that at any moment the police were going to show up and arrest me. Dad never did figure out why I didnt want to partake of the 4th of July fireworks that year...

[marktwain]

One of my favourites was chopping off surface ice to make ice flows to ride down a wild river in spring runoff. The water was literally ice cold, and the “floe” kept being eroded by bumping into rocks. Eventually we had to resort to running from one end to the other, as the end of the “floe” we were on would start sinking and the other end would rise in the air. It reminded me of a Warner Brothers cartoon. Adding that sort of kinetic energy to the equation can only keep you afloat on an eroding piece of ice for so long. The river seldom was more than thigh deep. When we eventually got dumped, our safety was to thrash to the closest shore, and run the distance to home and a house well heated by numerous woodburners. We would strip off the icy, wet clothes and warm up by a woodstove.

[TangoLimaSierra]

Sounds like we spent similar childhoods. Except, of course, the shooting down of police helicopters.

[fella]

As a kid my buddies and I found a .38 special bullet in the street. So what did we do? Why naturally we pounded on it with rocks to see if we could get it to go off. I think the primer was a dud cause it never did. Talk about being disappointed.

[Syntyr]

“Sounds like we spent similar childhoods. Except, of course, the shooting down of police helicopters.”

Yep... Kind of makes me sad for the current generation. I have a couple of nephews 14 and 17 years old. They are part of the “digital” generation. They never go outside. Always on the computer. I tried to take the 17 year old campig one year but he didnt like the “outsides”! He wont even go outside without putting his shoes on! He doesnt have a drivers license... no job... They just go to school, play on the computer and maybe go to the mall or see a movie.

I rode my bike everywhere. Did odd jobs all the time. Had no curfew except for dark. I had no limits. If I wanted to do soemthing I could. Heck I even bought my own car when I turned 17.

Today they have no adventure. No real life