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Posted: 7/25/2007 7:50:27 AM EDT
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I have 3 20MM ammo cans full of 308 tracers and the kids love fire works so i decided to pull the bullets out of a couple and hold them in a pair of pliers and hit the back end of the bullet with a torch. After about 10 sec's of heat the bullet POPS then shoots flames about a foot and half long then the lead in the bullet runs out like water. Now, wouldnt the 308 tracers be hitting differently then the ball ammo seein how they are loosin weight as they fly from the lead meltin and runnin out as it flys to the target? |
Tracers hit low because they are heavier than standard ball, and in some calibers like 5.56 the tracer takes up case space that usually holds powder. 
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Wrong. Tracers are lighter than ball in most cases. They do lose weight as they go down range too. They are not designed to match the trajectory of a ball cartridge exactly, but to "cross paths" as it were, at a specified range. The burn of the trace is not hot enough to melt the lead core, that was your torch at work. D.D. |
M856 tracer is heavier than M855 ball. It is also supposed to be ballistically matched, but at almost 200fps slower it is ging to strike lower. 7.62x51 tracer is lighter than the ball load, although they spec out at the same velocity.
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"I have 3 20MM ammo cans full of 308 tracers and the kids love fire works so i decided to pull the bullets out of a couple and hold them in a pair of pliers and hit the back end of the bullet with a torch. After about 10 sec's of heat the bullet POPS then shoots flames about a foot and half long then the lead in the bullet runs out like water. " Do not want to sound like preaching but in general maybe sparklers might be a better thing if kids like fireworks...pliers and blowtorches held up to light up components does not seem like a good example to me for being safe around guns and ammo. When I was a dumbass kid my Granpa used to cut the lead off even with the shell casing on .22 LR to make split shot for fishing and told me I could pound them after that with a hammer to make noise.It worked fine until I rapped on a few and took out the neighbor lady's window across the alley.Peddled newspapers all summer paying for that venture |
We also light a 1/4 stick and play hot potatoe . Not a damn thing wrong with hittin the tracers with a torch, i dont live in the city where i can go buy a sparkler so i compromise. Nothin aimed at anyone, and still alot safer then what your grandfather told you to do.
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Well today i went to the range and tried the 2 to see what happeneds. The tracer and ball shoot the same. Both on paper and out at 350 yrds. I was shooting the gong at 500 yrds with both every shot as well. They both hit the same elevation wise. I wasnt sure if they would or not, but they do. At 100yrs they kept just over a inch groups, every once in a while i would get a flyer, coulda been me. The 2 held identical groupings. Dont know why i didnt do this sooner, oh, yeah i do, cause i burnt up little over 100 rnds thats why, even though im set on 308, i still cringe everytime i get done and look at the pile of brass. HA |
Guess you are like the rest of us.
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