This is one angle of the story that makes the guy’s plan seem amateurish. I don’t know anyone over the age of 8 who would even think that a bullet would penetrate the exterior of a fuel tank like that.
A 300 Win Mag or 338 Lapua would but it would just cause a leak and no explosion. Perhaps even a minor fire.
“I don’t know anyone over the age of 8 who would even think that a bullet would penetrate the exterior of a fuel tank like that”
Depends on caliber, bullet weight and velocity at impact.
A .308 at 30ft might get through...a .338 Lupua at 30 ft most certainly would.
5.56 at 700yds would barely pass through a bean can.
It is laughable and displays the ignorance of the media "experts". The supposed “experts” on FOX tonight were blathering on and on about this and how lucky it was that the tanks didn't explode. The fact that the guy was apparently wasting his ammo shooting at these fuel tanks is a sign that this probably was not an operation planned by professionals from a foreign intelligence agency. So this probably was not an act of war perpetrated by a foreign government.
These tanks can explode when hit by an artillery shell or a bomb because the tank is ruptured and a vapor cloud is formed. However if a tiny bullet from a 223 or even a larger 30 caliber rifle was to penetrate a tank full of “jet fuel” aka “kerosene” it most likely wouldn't do anything other than possibly cause the tank to leak. The fuel to air mixture would be very unlikely to be in the right proportion to support combustion. In normal temperatures if the part of the tank that the bullet penetrated had less than 95% air in it... the mixture would be too rich to burn. Even if somehow it did start some of the contents on fire, the air would be consumed quickly and the pressure release apparatus would most likely release any gasses formed before the tank was damaged.
” I don’t know anyone over the age of 8 who would even think that a bullet would penetrate the exterior of a fuel tank like that.”
Maybe it was some of those cop killer, armor piercing bullets that Clinton, Warren, Feinstein, and Bloomberg talk so much about.
Definitely not from that distance.