Today's edition of the Outdoor Wire is reporting that federal officials in California are saying they suspect the massive forest fire burning in Yosemite was caused by ricochet from recreational shooting.

This is just too stupid to even comprehend. The federal officials issuing that statement should be fired. The BLM says it was a lightening strike.

They've finally gone off the deep end! Big one, NOW, PLEASE, the BIG ONE!!!!! They need to goooooooooooo.....

And once again, California leads the way...
1st the gun grab
2nd the housing crisis
etc., etc. ...
and now they lead the way in rank incompetance.

How do these idiots keep getting elected?
Glad I live in Texas!

kritter,
I used to live in Panhandle in the mid to late 90's.
Currently in Gillette, WY.
Welcome to the forum.
I just noticed you are relatively new to the forum.

To all,
FYI-I am going to post an email I recieved this week from a guy who puts on tactical style matches out side of Missoula, MT. I shot at one of his matches earlier this year. Different situation centerfire versus rimfire (I am assuming for CA-maybe not) but surprising none the less.

"Dear Rifleman,

I've received inquiries from several about when the next rifle match is scheduled. It's not, yet.

Here's the deal. In BOTH the June and July matches we started fires on the generous donor landowner's property - fires started by rifle bullet impact. Yeah, right. I wouldn't have thought this could happen except as a absolute fluke either. But, as my son Ty points out, we're two for two.

So, we just can't hold more matches until we get some wet.

I hope we can hold a match in September, most likely the third
Saturday, but that will be weather-dependent. We'll just have to wait and see how dry things are before we hold a match.

I will get word out by email if it's looking like OK conditions for a September match. I'll probably pick and announce a tentative date three or four weeks out, then green-light or red-light the match a few days prior to the match.

There is the possibility that we can assemble a work crew to scrape the duff down to bare, mineralized soil in the lead-splatter zone for each target, to control risk. That would be quite a bit of work, but doable."

Stay tuned.

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Here is a link that will show some pics of the area, and yes, yours truly.
Shooting the center-grip 7mm Dakota XP-100.

http://www.marbut.com/Rifle/Rifle%20Match%20photos%2004_19_08.html

How can a bullet light a fire. I know they are to hot to handle when they come out of the barrel, but what is causing the fire? Are they hitting rocks and sparking?

Interesting...I would have never guessed it could happen.

I sure never would have guessed it. Maybe the splatter off the steel is hot enough to catch dry grass of fire or misses are hitting a rock that is sparking-Don't have clue myself???
All I know is that it has happened in two matches in a row-Most targets (Steel) are from 300-800 yards, with some 150-300 for the hunter class.
E

FWIW-I am not trying to debate one way or the other about what happened in CA.
But Gary's email to all those who compete at his field matches was interesting, to say the least.

Well fellows here's how it works..."not claiming to to be an expert". I work for a military training center, Camp McCain, and we have state of the art rifle ranges. We have thousand of personell to fire each year. I worked for Range Control for eight years: Range Control is the "god's of the ranges". I also shoot on the state marksmanship team...what I'm getting at is this, I have a little experience...We have multiple fire each year caused from weapon's training but, out of the millions of rounds I've witnessed being fired, none of the fires were cause from ball ammunition "regular bullets". All, I say again, All fires on our ranges are caused by TRACER ROUNDS, which have a white phosphorus coating. This is the only way a round can cause a fire...at least that I'm aware of. If someone know's another way, please share with us.

I guess we now know what every fire in the country will be contributed to.

OK, maybe I was a little strong, there.
But the only times I ever heard, and could trace the story, of fires being started by gunfire, was with tracers, as Kral stated above.
I suppose it's possible for a copper jacket to generate a spark, and if the wind was right, start a fire. I just had never been able to trace a story down that could prove it as fact.

My bad.

But I'm still glad I live in Texas, I spent a few years stationed in California in the eighties and nineties. The country was beautiful, but the politics...

Let me clarify on my previous post...I was not hammering anyone on this forum...I'm with Gary...Where do they find these idiots?...kral

I have never set the woods on fire as it stays green and wet here in the NE, but I can see where it could happen in a dry area. I shoot a league in the winter and part of the course is shooting steel targets. We shoot Sunday night and steel is the last thing we shoot, so it's totally dark. Three or four shots each night make some really impressive sparks as the bullet strikes. I can see where that might set things a smoldering and a fire starts from there.

If you think about it all the energy stops in a matter of thousands of an inch. Some of that energy has got to be transfered to heat as the bullet desinigrates.

I think the biggest issue here isn't whether or not it's possible but how can they say with any sort of certainty that it was in fact a bullet ricochet.

All it takes is the grass to get heated to over ca. 450F - and it will begin to burn. How? Hot bullet fragments, perhaps. Copper will generally not spark when hitting rocks - but rocks displaced by the bullet can hit others at high velocity and spark. I've seen sparks with cast lead bullets - and lead will not spark at all. It is certainly possible for fired bullets to cause fires, but what proof is there that this is what happened in Cali?

There isn't any proof and unless you witnessed it the would be no way to prove it. That's why the BLM said it was lightening.

actually under the right circumstances grass will spontaneously combust which is why if you put up hay bales that are still green you have to salt them so you don't burn down your barn and I've seen it first hand.

I still say bulls#!t. Since kommiefornia has already banned lead boolits (for dubius reasons), now they have devised a scheme to ban boolits made of copper or anything else (for dubius reasons). No boolits, no crime, RIGHT???

There is no question putting up green hay will cause a blaze.

I agree. Someone with an agenda is probably saying this to push for more laws no doubt. "If it's caused by gunfire, well we can fix that. Let's start by banning outdoor shooting in the whole state during daylight hours. That'll help.". Ridiculous

Legislators can't do anything to legislate lightning. Or to punish the big, bad lightning for the damage it caused. Have to be seen as "doing something" for every possible event/thing. Fires everywhere in CA and doggone it, we gotta do something about it. Nanny-state politics at it's best.