If you shook a bag/box of bullets hard enough, could you get at least one to ignite? I guess this answer may depend on rimfire or centerfire ammo, but I was wondering if it'd be theoretically possible to shake a container of ammo enough to get one bullet to hit and ignite the primer in another bullet?
If it was, I'd think that transporting bulk/bagged ammo would be somewhat more dangerous but I'm guessing it's not that much of a real risk?
 A: In principle, sure.  Both physical shock and excessive temperature can cause a cartridge to discharge.  However, there are a few reasons why this isn't typically a big concern.

*

*It's very unlikely to occur under normal circumstances. Ammunition being transported by a distributor isn't free to move around. Even loose ammo being transported in a box or e.g. a ziploc bag probably doesn't have enough space to tumble around, and even if it did there would need to be some quite violent shaking for one to go off.

*The barrel of a firearm focuses the explosion, forcing the rapidly expanding gas to propel the bullet forward.  Without this focusing effect, a discharging cartridge acts more like an aggressive, metallic firecracker.  That's not to say it isn't dangerous, but it's unlikely to penetrate the walls of a closed container.

Of course, none of this is an endorsement of shoddy firearm safety. Due to the subject matter, it's worth emphasizing that ammunition should always be stored and transported securely.
A: This is very unlikely since for ammunition to discharge, you would need an object that is more "pointy" and similar in dimension to a firing pin, and other bullets don't have this feature. Certainly there are plenty of rounds that taper off to a point at the top, but I really can't see how they may be able to strike the base of another round and cause it to ignite. At the very least for this to happen, there would have to be very violent motion to cause a discharge. Also, firing pins are usually made of zinc alloy I believe, giving it a high impact strength. I'm not a ballistics expert, but I believe the answer to your question would be no. But nevertheless, always store ammunition safely and never in the way you describe. Ammo should be left in their holders and stored in their boxes, especially if they are being transported.
