If you touch a moving stone in curling, it’s called “burning” the stone , and there are clear rules for what happens next.

Quick Scoop

  • Touching the stone while it is moving is a violation, whether it’s with your broom, foot, hand, or any part of your equipment.
  • The consequences depend on where on the ice the touch happens and who caused it.
  • Players are expected to own up to it immediately; trying to hide it is considered against the spirit of curling.

Before the hog line (toward the scoring end)

This is the strictest case.

  • If your own team touches its moving stone between the tee line at the throwing end and the hog line at the playing end, your team must stop it and remove it from play immediately.
  • There’s no negotiation here: that stone is simply out and cannot count for score in that end.

A common example: a sweeper’s broom clips the stone early, they throw up a hand, stop it, and pull it off the sheet—no drama, just an accepted mistake.

After the hog line (near the house)

Once the stone has crossed the hog line toward the house, things get more situational.

  • The stone is allowed to keep moving until it comes to rest , even though it has been touched.
  • After it stops, the non‑offending team chooses what happens next.

They have three basic options (wording varies by rulebook, but idea is the same):

  1. Leave all stones where they finished.
  2. Remove the burned stone and put any other displaced stones back where they were.
  3. Re‑place the stones where they reasonably think they would have ended up if the stone hadn’t been touched.

Because curling is big on sportsmanship, teams often pick the option that seems most fair rather than the most ruthlessly advantageous.

Touching a stone that isn’t the thrown one

There are two main situations people ask about:

  • You touch a moving stone that’s not the one just thrown (for example, a rock already in play gets bumped by a sweeper). In practice, the skips of both teams talk it through and try to put stones back where they believe they would have been, or choose a fair outcome.
  • You nudge a stationary stone that would not have affected the moving stone. Then the non‑offending team is allowed to put it back where it was before you bumped it.

Players sometimes also point out the very human side of this: it can hurt if you smash into a rock at speed, and it’s embarrassing, but it happens to almost everyone eventually.

Is it ever “no problem”?

A few edge points:

  • A small “double touch” by the thrower’s hand or handle before the stone leaves their hand and passes the initial hog line is usually not a violation under some modern rule sets.
  • Casual leagues and beginner nights may handle minor burned stones more leniently, but official rules still follow the remove/let‑stand/replace framework.

Forum vibes and current chatter

This exact question pops up regularly on forums and Q&A threads, especially during big events like the Olympics, as new viewers notice sweepers nearly tripping over rocks.

The consensus in those discussions is consistent:

  • Early touch = stone removed.
  • Late touch = opponent’s choice, with an expectation of honesty and fairness.

TL;DR: If you touch the stone in curling while it’s moving, you’ve “burned” it: early in its path, your team must pull it out of play; later on, it stays until it stops and the other team decides whether to keep the result, remove it, or recreate what likely would have happened.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.