Gordon
Ultimate Member
Kicking around the idea of loading up some .308 using 143 gr tracers. Anyone have any experience with tracers?
Tracers?
- Thread starter Gordon
- Start date
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85MikeTPI
Ultimate Member
They like to set fire to posts and dry trees and grass
- Jul 29, 2014
- 49,982
But he's in Baltimore City...it's probably on fire anyway
Besides, they look really cool bouncing off streets and buildings at night.
What questions do you have? First thing i would say is you need to use stick powder for the reloads, it is needed to ignite the tracer compound. Ball powder usually wont do it.
Where would you shoot them? Out over the water? In the dry, dry desert?
As someone stated, you will need stick powder to ignite them. They are not good for your barrel so don't shoot them in an expensive target gun. They do not track like standard ball. They tend to wander around due to the burning tail at the end.
THEY WILL START FIRES! Be careful where you shoot them.
Anywhere, while it's raining...
Not on a range while anyone's watching.
I have one tracer round that was mixed in with 1000 rounds of surplus .30-06 from the CMP. I can't shoot it, and I'm too much of a pack rat to throw it away. So it sits there, like an ugly girl at a bar, waiting for closing time...
Tracers: a bullet or shell whose course is made visible in flight by a trail of flames or smoke, used to assist in aiming.
Really?
Seabee
Old Timer
Pretty much covered already. In the military we spent more time putting out range fires than shooting. Tough on barrels. They will sure show the ricochets.
Skipjacks
Ultimate Member
Tracers are only really cool at night in large numbers
I remember my first time shooting them at a night fire with 50 lanes firing.....the range looked like Star Wars. It was awesome to watch.
As for usefulness....there is none from a semi auto rifle. You have enough control over the rifle at a relatively slow rate of fire that you shouldn't need tracers
Tracers come in handy for crew serve weapons with high rates of fire. They are necessary when you are trying to walk a machine gun onto a Target at 200 rounds a minute
They are also necessary on large guns like a 25 mm cannon where your target may be 3000m out and you need to track your flight to make adjustments for the next volley. (Also they look super cool in thermal sights)
But in a hand held rifle? They are a novelty one time without much practical use....unless you have an old she'd you really want to burn down from 500 yards away. In that unique scenario.....they serve function.
I remember my first time shooting them at a night fire with 50 lanes firing.....the range looked like Star Wars. It was awesome to watch.
As for usefulness....there is none from a semi auto rifle. You have enough control over the rifle at a relatively slow rate of fire that you shouldn't need tracers
Tracers come in handy for crew serve weapons with high rates of fire. They are necessary when you are trying to walk a machine gun onto a Target at 200 rounds a minute
They are also necessary on large guns like a 25 mm cannon where your target may be 3000m out and you need to track your flight to make adjustments for the next volley. (Also they look super cool in thermal sights)
But in a hand held rifle? They are a novelty one time without much practical use....unless you have an old she'd you really want to burn down from 500 yards away. In that unique scenario.....they serve function.
Park ranger
Ultimate Member
- Dec 6, 2015
- 2,327
I have not had much luck trying to get tracers to start fires, in a controlled situation of course. YMMV.
They are a tool, match quality no they are not made to be. But I do think they serve a limited purpose. Shoot one in a high wind situation and you can see just how easily a bullet is blow off course over several hundreds of yards.
They are a tool, match quality no they are not made to be. But I do think they serve a limited purpose. Shoot one in a high wind situation and you can see just how easily a bullet is blow off course over several hundreds of yards.
Rambler
Doing the best with the worst.
- Oct 22, 2011
- 2,215
My only experience with tracers is at civilian machine gun shoots. They look really cool but should not be used when there are dry combustibles down range. As posted above, they really show ricochets and over the berm shots quite well. From a military/tactical standpoint, tracers also show where the rounds came from, not just where they went. For some real fun, try APIT, armor piercing incendiary tracer.
Buster Brown
Active Member
Ive seen them set fire. Someone fired about 10 consecutive rounds in one area where there was tall weeds. We ran 100 yards to it and almost put it out until a strong wind blew. After that it was out of control. The fire departments brush truck got stuck in mud trying to get to it to make things worse. They finally got it put out after it spread about 50 yards. Never again. Ive personally set a fire shooting an old steel tractor wheel with 7n6. Luckily i got that put out immediately.
85MikeTPI
Ultimate Member
Now with all that out of the way, has anyone had any experience with IR tracers?
https://americanreloading.com/en/30-caliber-308/2808-308-147gr-dim-purple-tracer-250ct.html
My friend in PA orders a batch of tracers and was mistakenly sent these. We haven't tried his night
vision scope with them yet, definitely a curiosity and novelty...
https://americanreloading.com/en/30-caliber-308/2808-308-147gr-dim-purple-tracer-250ct.html
My friend in PA orders a batch of tracers and was mistakenly sent these. We haven't tried his night
vision scope with them yet, definitely a curiosity and novelty...
Burning bullets that can't be seen by the naked eye. What can go wrong?
WatTyler
Ultimate Member
You have won today's internet. Thanks for playing.
My uncle gave me a belt of 7.62 rounds, every 4th one was a tracer (maybe 5th). I took the whole thing apart and separated the ammo. I have shot a few of the tracers here and there. The head stamp is '62. Some of them don't light but the ones that did were hard to see at under 100yds due to the short flight time and it being daylight out.
That may have been a belt of M60 Vietnam War era ammo.
