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Nothing to do with luck. A round going off outside of a firearm has nothing to contain the explosion so comparatively it's mostly harmless, the brass tears open, the bullet has little force behind it.
My first job out of high school back in 1977 was as an appliance tech. We got a call in saying that their GAS dryer wouldn't ignite, and dry clothes.
I get to the house, and the dryer is in the basement, of which the floor is covered with dog crap, and smells too high heaven. Anyway, I go over to the the dryer to scope it out. Nope, burner won't ignite. I pull OFF the bottom kick-panel, to look at the burner unit (which is built sort of like a flamethrower type style). I'm looking around it, and notice ONE of the burner wires (which are asbestos covered to keep them from melting) is broken in half. That just can't easily happen by itself, and I was WTF?
I continue to look, and notice that there was several/3 loaded and viable 12 gauge SHOTGUN shells laying in the bottom of the dryer, and one is laying very close to the exit of the burner!
Turns out the husband is a hunter, AND the wife (like most typical wives) didn't properly check all pockets before throwing clothes in for drying. The shells fell out of his clothes, made their way through the front or back drum seal, fell into the bottom, and got into a position that could have perhaps blown the house up, or at least cause a bad fire, and/or kill anybody close by when they went off, IF the ignitor had remained viable to light the flame.
So, perhaps more proof that angels DO exist to protect (some) stupid people?
I know this much, there's no likely way that wire simply broke by itself in the way it did...
A cartridge that fires outside a gun does not present a problem. What makes a bullet travel from the chamber to the muzzle and rapidly accelerating is the obturation (sealing) of the chamber except at the opening to the barrel A bullet requires very high pressure to do this, often in excess of 50,000 p.s.i. The barrel of the gun has a small diameter so it's easy to reach this pressure. A cartridge firing without this has very little pressure.
The U.S. Army performed some experiments during the early thirties. They used a small light cardboard box. They placed a bar of common soap inside the box along with a cartridge. Wires were run to the cartridge allowing it to be remotely fired. The results showed that was no damage to the bar of soap. Only one shot marked the box. it made a very slight dent. The man who did the experiments was General Julian Hatcher who was involved in ordnance during his entire career. He recounted this in his boook Hatcher's Notebook. It's a fascinating work so I'll link to it. It's been in print for almost sixty years.
Hmmm...not the brightest bulb on the tree, eh? LOL
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