Can tracer rounds start fires?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Can tracer rounds start fires?

Posted: 5/15/2002 10:25:02 PM EDT

Has anyone had an event where tracer rounds have started a brush fire? With the extremely dry conditions in Arizona, I was wondering if this was actually possible. We have 2 large forest fires burning right now, one north of Payson and another threatening the city of Prescott. I don't own any tracers but I'm concerned about some of those not so thoughtful.

Posted: 5/15/2002 10:27:48 PM EDT

[#1]

Hell yes they can start fires. we use to get the range shut down on ft. stewart every time we had a live fire exercise.

Posted: 5/15/2002 10:27:53 PM EDT

[#2]

It was during a night fire excerise kind of neat if you ask me

Posted: 5/15/2002 10:28:50 PM EDT

[#3]

Yes. On brushy or grassy ranges we'll start fires with tracer rounds bout every time we do a live fire.

Posted: 5/15/2002 10:28:55 PM EDT

[#4]

Yes, absolutely.

I've done exactly that in the desert.

Had to run like hell to get to the smoldering weed fire I started. I did put it out though.

Don't mess with them ANYWHERE around underbrush. It's a tinderbox right now.

Posted: 5/15/2002 10:33:03 PM EDT

[#5]

... I'm thinking that you weren't prior to posting [flame] [flame] [flame]

Posted: 5/15/2002 11:26:30 PM EDT

[#6]

Doesn't even have to be a tracer round.

Posted: 5/15/2002 11:39:27 PM EDT

[#7]

At the SOF firepower demo I went to, the whole side of the mountain facing the shooting range got set on fire from tracers.

Posted: 5/16/2002 8:12:36 AM EDT

[#8]

Yes,
I started one once, but quickly put it out.

Posted: 5/16/2002 8:17:46 AM EDT

[#9]

We had a fire at a local club and it was started by standard ammo. No real dmage done but there was some finger pointing afterwards "did anyone use tracers". The guys who were shooting didn't use them, but now, that is the ONLY thing banned from being used or shot at the club.

Posted: 5/16/2002 8:40:45 AM EDT

[#10]

A few years ago, H&K did a demo for my agency at the FBI Academy in Virginia, which is by no means a dry state. They were using tracers and, sure enough, the range started burning.

Luckily, they had a big tub of water that they had been soaking some MP-5’s in, so a couple of them lugged it up to berm and were able to put out the fire.

If anyone is using tracers, they should always have fire extinguishers, water, or such to put out fires. Also, they should pay close attention to how windy it is before breaking out the tracers.

Posted: 5/17/2002 6:26:01 AM EDT

[#11]

You want a fire??....Try shooting tracer rounds through a meth lab!!!!

Posted: 5/17/2002 7:16:15 AM EDT

[#12]

Yep...they sure can start fires. When I was stationed at Ft Knox, we went to tank gunnery during a long dry spell in the summer. To keep from starting fires we had to pull all of the tracer rounds out of the belts for the Ma-Deuce and the 240's. I believe they were loaded in the belts 4:1 with ball and we made up belt of strictly ball ammo. The cool part was, after it rained, we got to run belts full of tracer downrange...quite a sight to see!!

Underdog

Posted: 5/17/2002 7:23:27 AM EDT

[#13]

let's see...6-7 fires started at last year's bulletfest shoot...yes, and all by machineguns shooting tracer and apit rounds.

Posted: 5/17/2002 7:25:18 AM EDT

[#14]

Can they start fires? Does a fat hog fart?

Posted: 5/17/2002 7:30:24 AM EDT

[#15]

Yep.

Tracers can start fires.

And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Eric The(Yessir,That'sAll)Hun[>]:)]

Posted: 5/17/2002 7:39:36 AM EDT

[#16]

You'd better believe they can start a fire! At the Sherburne Range on the WMA a while back a few young guys who are in the National Guard can the shoot their personal AR-15's. I guess they had access to ammo from the armoury. They happened to have a tracer mixed in. It lit up and hit the dry grass on the backstop hill. The grass went up in flames. The game wardens had to haul a water hose out there to put it out.

Posted: 5/17/2002 9:01:42 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Doesn't even have to be a tracer round.

View Quote

Listen to prk.

If it's sufficiently dry, regular rounds can EASILY start fires.

I remember being at a shooting range facility for a week once with my army company, and spending three or four hours every day putting out fires - and we were deliberately not using tracers because of the fire risk.

Posted: 5/17/2002 3:39:01 PM EDT

[#18]

The danger with "regular" rounds is actually from ammo with steel jackets. Much of the Russian and Czech ammo (as well as Chinese and others) use copper-plated or copper-washed steel for bullet jackets. If these bullets hit a rock or something downrange, the thin copper plating isn't nearly enough to prevent the steel from sparking. My local range has had several fires from this. No tracers were used.

-Troy

Posted: 5/17/2002 4:27:20 PM EDT

[#19]

Standard ball ammo can also start fires.

Posted: 5/18/2002 6:12:03 PM EDT

[#20]

Thanks for all the posts guys. I have never fired them but had got to thinking about some of the forest fires we have had lately here in Arizona.It would be a real tragic event if a shooter started a fire up in the mountains due to stupidity.

Posted: 5/18/2002 6:17:43 PM EDT

[#21]

850 acres.
nuff said....

Posted: 5/18/2002 6:20:38 PM EDT

[#22]

Hummmmm, now that I think about it, I can't remember a time when the tracers [b]didn't[/b] start a fire. Just don't shoot too far down range because you have to run and put it out real fast. I usually like to have some young, energetic guys around to handle that job.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Can tracer rounds start fires?

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