That was my first thought. I had a M1 Garand casing go down my shirt the same way, and it was hot enough to make me jump, but not hot enough to burn. I wouldn’t think they would burn a carpet.
Any other Freepers know?
Water boils at 212°.
Skin is mostly water, hence the propensity to “burn”, especially when in contact with hot metal having high thermal conductivity.
Cloth/carpet doesn’t do anything notable at 212° or thereabouts. We regularly use the stuff to pull much hotter stuff out of ovens.
Ergo, the author is being pretty stupid when complaining about how hot shells are to the touch, but then complaining there aren’t outright burn marks on industrial cloth built to withstand such heat.