Start fire with a cartridge?

[mousegunner]

If you were in the woods without matches, but you had a couple of cartridges in your pocket, could you start a fire by pulling out the bullet, and hitting the cartridge with a rock?

[Jonnin]

Probably. Depends on the caliber, and what else you had on hand for tinder.

I would think you could just empty out the powder and strike a spark with a couple of rocks or even static electricity to get the powder to burn. Pour the powder onto a sap-rich pine stick or pine-cone cut up into tinder and it should start right up. I wouldnt try to set off the primer unless very, very desperate.

[mousegunner]

I'm thinking that if you piled up tinder around the cartridge (sans bullet), and hit the primer, then the powder would ignite, and also ignite the tinder, starting up a fire. Might even work in damp weather.

[MacGyver]

I've tried it a time or two. The old Eagle Scout in me will try just about any method to start a fire. My life has been saved at least once by being able to get a fire going quickly while in the field. Accidents happen. I carry a lighter in my pocket and a mischmetal rod around my neck every day. People look at me like I'm crazy, but I'm here today because I carry a knife that can do big boy work and a way to start a fire.

Like many things in life, success here favors the prepared. You're going to have to make sure that your tinder bundle is very well prepared. Dump your powder out on a log and ignite it, and you'll get a blackened log you can look at as you go to meet the reaper. You are going to need a lot of fine grain surface area for the powder to ignite it appropriately. Make sure your fire lay is pretty well prepared before you ignite your tinder, and it will work just fine.

[peejman]

Survivorman (Les Stroud) did it in one of the episodes. It took many tries to get the right amount of powder in the casing, but it did eventually work. He was using a rifle, but the principle is the same.

[Shorty]

They did it in the Deep Woods episode also except without using a firearm.

[Will Carry]

I pride myself in my ability to build a fire. I have never tried using cartridge though. I have used magnifying glasses, magnesium sticks and flint but I have never used a bow or a cartridge. I will try that next time I get a chance.

[DaveTN]

I wouldn’t go into the woods without a firearm or a lighter.

Or a cell phone… if my lighter didn’t work I would call someone to bring me some matches.

[Supranforever]

I'd like to know how to do this too.

[buck1032]

The problem lies with igniting the powder with the primer if the powder is out of the case. As mentioned Les did it on one episode and the powder was rather hard to ignite with the primer being fired. If I remember correctly he kept blasting his powder away with the pressure of the primer. I have started many, many fires with smokeless powder, but I never tried it with the primer. The powder is easy enough to ignite with a spark from the mag block stricker, metal match, etc...

[bajabuc]

since I only hunt with black powder flintlocks, I usually carry a tinderbox and a flint and steel. Metal Altoid boxes are great because the design is pre 1820. It takes some prep though. Keeping a fire going in the rain is a lot harder than starting one.

[bigwakes]

Dual Survival with the hippie and the military guy used a black powder rifle with no ball to light some tinder. The military guy also cut a deep gash in his arm to see if he could carterise it with black powder. It looked painful, but worked.