Here’s how far different bullets can travel The NRA says that for a 9 mm handgun, the most popular handgun according to Guns.com, a bullet will travel up to 2,130 yards, or about 1.2 miles.

So no, a cartridge / bullet will not fire on dropping on the ground. For a cartridge to go off, the small cap at the base of the cartridge (the primer) needs to be struck by a hammer or firing pin – such is the firing mechanism of all conventional small-arms ammunition worldwide.

It’s possible, though it would have to hit perfectly. Even if it did go off, without the pressure being contained by a barrel the bullet will not go far. In fact, the casing will launch off much faster since it is so much lighter.

about 1800 meters

No. There is not sufficient muzzle velocity for a bullet fired from any civilian or military firearm to reach space (escape velocity). This is an extremely dangerous practice and you are risking harm to other people.

A 9mm-calibre Luger Parabellum round fired from a handgun travels at about 370m/s. To optimise its range, it would be fired at an angle of 45° and should cover about 2,300 metres. Pistols are obviously not long-range weapons. But heavy artillery is capable of ranges in excess of 30,000 metres.

Even if you have a good sense of a bullet’s minimum lethal velocity, it’s still pretty difficult to clock the speed of a round fired in the air. Gunshots can travel as high as 10,000 feet, and the wind takes them in unpredictable directions.

Bullets fired into the air usually fall back with terminal velocities much lower than their muzzle velocity when they leave the barrel of a firearm. Nevertheless, people can be injured, sometimes fatally, when bullets discharged into the air fall back down to the ground.

783m/s