Tracer rounds

[denvernative321]

was hoping someone on here had any info on tracer rounds? has anyone here used them? if so how well did they work? what caliber size were you using? where did you buy them?

[pathfinder3081]

You can (or could) find them at the gun shows or on the web. There is no comon balistic difference to my knowledge. We ran them thru the M60 (308) night and day. Somtimes every 3rd round, others every 5th. They were marked with a red tip. It's been over 25 years though. Things might have changed

[Oscar Wilde]

My .308's are orange tipped....you can tell where they're going ....and where they came from.
O.W.

[slowz1k]

like O.W. said.... Tracers work both ways. Gotta be careful with that. I keep a few on hand. When loading a magazine the first three rounds loaded are tracers. That way if I don't keep an accurate count on what I've spent (Which I should, but I don't) I know when I see them it's time for a fresh mag.

5.56
Gunbroker.com

[ashelocoa]

Enfield tracers

I've fired white phosphorous tracers of WWI vintage before. Pretty neat. The bullets were zinc coated to differentiate. I currently have a stock of vintage WWII[1944] tracers, brass jacketed with a black tip. I haven't fired these but heard from a guy I sold some too that they are definitely tracers and function well. I'm not really sure what the point of them in bolt action is though. I understand their use in a high capacity magazine, but so far I have had little trougle counting to ten!:D

[JerryPt2]

ashelocoa, i thought black tips denoted armor piercing? from what i've shot of tracers, they point both ways...also give your barrel a thorough cleaning as the ompound has a tendeny to ome off in ones barrel and produe some pitting if left there long enough.

[PalmettoNative]

i've shot tracers during my ATF weekends at the "compound/BOL" at night to demonstrate to novices how fast bullets actually cover distance. I used to buy at cheaperthandirt.com, but as we all know ammo is in short supply. I'd like to obtain some .22LR tracer to show the velocity difference with the .223.

[ashelocoa]

Black tip enfields...

That's what the guy who bought them said, but they are tracers. The WWI rounds didn't have tip markings, just zinc coated and head stamped. The WWII British tracers are brass jacketed so they painted the tips black to differentiate. I'm not sure when the red tip became standardised, perhaps someone can shed some light on that?

ashelocoa

ps thanks for the cleaning tip!

[Northphx602]

The use of tracer rounds

I have used tracers as a soldier (back in the day), but I have found a number of things, as stated earlier, tracers DO work both ways, we did use the tracer at first as a means of ensuring during night fires that we were on target. The progression in warfighting showed that we as operators usually fired high above the target (usually 4-6') without nightvision. Tracers were used as markers to allow others the ability of converging fire onto a specific location/ threat. Aircraft (usually rotary) were able to see the convergance of fire and send high volumes of fire or rockets onto a target.

Today, most conventional military forces are told to put 3-5 tracers as the LAST rounds in a magazine to visually communicate to their battlebuddy that someone is low on ammo and to increase the volume of fire to cover any possible lull in friendly fire onto any hostiles.

The slow migration of current TTP (techniques, tactics and procedures) throughout the conventional military forces relies heavily on the use of: Night vision devices and the use of IR lasers, the purging of ANY tracer fires from any ground forces AND, get this people, SOLID reloading and malfunction procedures making any loss of your individual volume of fire a correctable situation by keeping a cool head, assessing that you ran dry and simply reloading another mag in accordance to your training.

Lastly, as you are engaging your threat, you know you are running close to going winchester on your mag and you conduct a combat reload leaving 2-3 rounds in each magazine you have changed out...those rounds can be consolidated into a single magazine once you have performed your ACE (Ammunition, Casualties and Sensitive Equipment) report in a safe location.

In the speak of people today...tracers are SO yesterday.

[Mags]

North covered it pretty well from a military stand point.

While I do have an early gen. NVD (night vision device) and visual lasers, I do not have any IR target designator/pointer lasers. Way back when ammo was still available I would purchase 100 or 200 tracers per 1,000 rds of 5.56 ammo I bought. The tracers would be loaded for both reasons "North" covered, target aquisition and as the last 2 or 3 out of a mag. I have had a box or two of 9mm tracer ammo but think of it and all handgun tracer ammo as a novelty.

I'll tell you from much experience that when observing an urban/suburban area at night it is infinitely easier to "laz" a specific target building or window with an IR laser than try to point it out by counting buildings or pointing your finger!

When caught in an ambush at night being accurately fired on by approx. 8 PKM's and numerous small arms I can tell you that for a milisecond the incoming tracers are ****ing beautiful, but only for that milisecond................

If you could find some good ones for your main mag fed battle rifle I'd say pick'em up. They'll shoot, they'll kill, they have a purpose, and they're pretty cool.

IMHO, YMMV..........


Plus they are just cool at night!

[denvernative321]

great info guys thanks. but i would still like to know where i can pick some up for a decent price?

[slowz1k]

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/

http://www.gunbroker.com/