Where do the bullets go?

[Scott Rose]

I recently saw a comment on reddit about the fact that in Star Wars, all the laser blasts that missed are still traveling through the Galaxy.

This reminded me of a question I asked my father when I was 6ish. We were watching a war movie involving aerial combat. My 6ish year old brain wondered where all the missed bullets went? Also, the spent shell casings, where did they go?

As an adult these questions have obvious answers. However, the memory of these questions led me to ponder the fate of these projectiles. How common is it, at least in Europe, to find bullets, cases or ever the links of the belted ammo? It almost seems like anybody with a metal detector would find these items constantly.

Does anybody know how frequently these items are found? Is it as common?

[Pat Carry]

An excellent question Scott! I have wondered about all the shell casings dropped over Europe. There must be millions of them still scattered here and there. What about the shell casings on the floor of the returning bombers? Did they reuse them? Were they melted down to make more casings?? An interesting topic for sure. Then there is the shrapnel from the anti-aircraft guns. There has to be millions of those around as well.

[Scott Rose]

An excellent question Scott! I have wondered about all the shell casings dropped over Europe. There must be millions of them still scattered here and there. What about the shell casings on the floor of the returning bombers? Did they reuse them? Were they melted down to make more casings?? An interesting topic for sure. Then there is the shrapnel from the anti-aircraft guns. There has to be millions of those around as well.

It must be frustrating to be a metal detector enthusiast, unless you have a military interest.

I've watched some magnet fishing videos from the "eastern front" and some of the stuff they pull up is amazing.

[Richard W.]

OK, so I guess I’m not the only guy who winces every time I see gun camera footage with towns or buildings in the background?

I’m glad.

[tankbarrell]

Yes, very common. In the UK, 3.7" AA gun fuze remains are always being found around towns. They are brass so survive well. I suspect the biggest danger to people outside during an air raid was all the falling shell fragments!

[Scott Rose]

OK, so I guess I’m not the only guy who winces every time I see gun camera footage with towns or buildings in the background?

I’m glad.

yup, I always pictured some cow in a field tipping over from a stray .50 round to the head fired from 15,000ft.

[lucky52]

I bet they find lots of aircraft parts,50 cal. machine guns and ammo boxes thrown out to lighten the aircraft all the time.We just don’t hear about it.

[Clifford Bossie]

That is a good question! We all know it is going to fall somewhere...

When I was a kid and would go dove hunting with my dad and grandfather there would be times when other hunters would not pay attention where they were shooting and we would get caught in a rain of pellets. It could sting but not bad. I can only imagine brass and links raining down on somebody. And what would the velocity of a .50 bullet fired at 20,000 ft be when it struck the ground? Maybe not still 3,000 FPS but it would still leave more than a welt.

[Mark Sampson]

It's a big world down there.
But there are large parts of France, for example, still full of unexploded ordnance form the First World War. Some areas around Verdun were deemed too dangerous from that to re-populate and rebuild, and so were made nature preserves. And farther north, near the Somme and Ypres battlefields, they are still collecting UXB from the fields.

[Kyleb]

It's a big world down there.
But there are large parts of France, for example, still full of unexploded ordnance form the First World War. Some areas around Verdun were deemed too dangerous from that to re-populate and rebuild, and so were made nature preserves. And farther north, near the Somme and Ypres battlefields, they are still collecting UXB from the fields.

As I recall, that land is also unsuitable for farming because you can't safely plow it.

[Scott Rose]

When I lived on Guam in the mid-70s we use to find bits of aluminum that we were clueless about. As an adult I realized that it was probably pieces of aircraft. My clubhouse back then was a japanese bunker carved into the coral outcropping at the beach near where I lived. We were told never to go into the water barefoot as there was rusted steel all over the shallows. At 7 I could care less, as an adult I wish I could go back and see the stuff I took for granted back in the day.

[shrike]

Wasn't there a German pilot tried by the Soviets for war crimes with the charge that each and every one of the X-thousands of rounds he fired MUST have killed a civilian on the ground?

I have been downrange on one gunnery range where you find a spent .50 bullet every 3-5 feet on average.

[Jesse C.]

Well, if they found a whole Ball Turret in an Italian lake, there must be tons of stuff out there still waiting to be recovered, or forgotten.

I have sometimes wondered as well where some of this stuff landed, and where it still sits.

[p51]

I talked with a WW2 infantryman vet years ago. He told me he watched a .50 cal brass drive right through the helmet of the man in front of him, which of clurse killed him instantly.

[maxum96]

I talked with a WW2 infantryman vet years ago. He told me he watched a .50 cal brass drive right through the helmet of the man in front of him, which of clurse killed him instantly.

How could a .50 brass casing get enough velocity to go through a steel helmet? Even falling from 30,000 feet a casing wouldn't be able to penetrate a steel helmet. I could see a brass falling and penetrating someone's head who was not wearing a helmet.