would they behave the same way if set off by fire...?


EDIT: i just read that many children typically attend these bonfires. whoever rigged the branch deserves prison and/or mental health evaluation.

Here's a little ballistics information for you. A bullet gains speed because rapidly expanding gas pushes it at an ever increasing rate down the barrel. If you are familiar with Newton's third law, you would know that most of the pressure would dissipate immediately because the propellant would not be confined to a barrel. The projectile would pop out of the shell at a relatively low speed because the bullet would come out as the gas inside the shell expanded enough to force it outward. Once out, there is no further gas expansion to get the bullet up to lethal velocity. What you would most likely see is several loud pops and relatively little damage. There is no rifling and very little pressure to get the bullet up to speed. Worst case scenario it would possibly be about the equivalent of getting hit by a thrown rock; and that's only if the projectile made it out of the wood pile; which is unlikely. As the wood in the pile around the device burned, it would more than likely change the position and therefore the trajectory sending it into the other wood in the pile, downward or upward. In fact, it would be more likely to cause harm if the shell casing was the projectile but that part is secured in the wood.