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Posted: 7/30/2010 6:32:32 AM EDT
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Is it safe to shoot tracer rounds out of a Barrett M82?
My buddy has a huge farm with a ton of land and he doesnt care what we shoot. He has some huge dirt piles, so we are not worried about fires. So it is OK? |
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He has some huge dirt piles, so we are not worried about fires. [yoda voice] Ummm you will be, yes hmm you will be [/yoda voice] I dont know if you have watched any videos of people shooting tracers. But the little buggers seem to have this natural tendency to bounce off of things and go flying in all directions. So best be prepared to drive over to where ever on this friends farm and have a small aggie tank with water in it and a means to pump that water through a hose to put out any small brush fires you start. |
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Is it safe to shoot tracer rounds out of a Barrett M82? My buddy has a huge farm with a ton of land and he doesnt care what we shoot. He has some huge dirt piles, so we are not worried about fires. So it is OK? I have shot a lot of tracers up to 2200 yards away and they do bounce all over the place and have a tendacy to start fires over 1/4 mile away from where you are shooting. We have been lucky so far and been able to put out our unexpected fires, but know of people that had to call the local Volunteer Fire Department to come put out a big brush fire. If it is windy those little fires grow very fast. Our first fire started about 600 yards away and there was no way to drive the truck to it so it was a mad dash in 90+ degree weather to stomp out a fire. We were lucky it was a calm day and noticed some white smoke coming out of the grass way up the hill, took a few seconds to figure out what it was then we both took off running for it. Be Careful but have fun. Ed |
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#1 rule of shooting tracers: They will set things on fire in the most difficult areas to reach, at the most inopportune time and when you are the least equipped to put said fires out.
This rule is not caliber dependent. I no longer shoot them and I have a ton of them 7.62x51, they are just too much of a risk for me. I don't want to burn down someones home/farm. |
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Tracers aren't the only ones that bounce. You just don't see the other ones do it. Find a better backstop.
As said before, biggest problem is starting fires. I've shot incendiaries and tracers and tracers start a LOT more fires (3 for me personally, incendiaries, none) because it's a constant 2-4 second burn. Shooting out at random objects (not a range backstop), I've had them bounce and land 'softly' on the ground and continue burning anywhere from 20 to 600yd behind my target. Very scary feeling when you realize there's a fire a half mile away from you and the only way to put it out is to sprint there and stomp it out. Not to discourage you, but 3 fires is enough for me, so the only way I shoot them is into steel, into a soft dirt backstop, or at long enough ranges that the tracer completely burns out. |
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Tracers aren't the only ones that bounce. You just don't see the other ones do it. Find a better backstop. As said before, biggest problem is starting fires. I've shot incendiaries and tracers and tracers start a LOT more fires (3 for me personally, incendiaries, none) because it's a constant 2-4 second burn. Shooting out at random objects (not a range backstop), I've had them bounce and land 'softly' on the ground and continue burning anywhere from 20 to 600yd behind my target. Very scary feeling when you realize there's a fire a half mile away from you and the only way to put it out is to sprint there and stomp it out. Not to discourage you, but 3 fires is enough for me, so the only way I shoot them is into steel, into a soft dirt backstop, or at long enough ranges that the tracer completely burns out. The M-17 Burgandy tip .50BMG tracer has a Trace range: 2,679 yards (2,450 m) the M-10 orange tip is 1600 yards and the M-1 red tip is 1,969 yards. Most all the ones I shoot are the M-17 Ed |
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Tracers aren't the only ones that bounce. You just don't see the other ones do it. Find a better backstop. As said before, biggest problem is starting fires. I've shot incendiaries and tracers and tracers start a LOT more fires (3 for me personally, incendiaries, none) because it's a constant 2-4 second burn. Shooting out at random objects (not a range backstop), I've had them bounce and land 'softly' on the ground and continue burning anywhere from 20 to 600yd behind my target. Very scary feeling when you realize there's a fire a half mile away from you and the only way to put it out is to sprint there and stomp it out. Not to discourage you, but 3 fires is enough for me, so the only way I shoot them is into steel, into a soft dirt backstop, or at long enough ranges that the tracer completely burns out. The M-17 Burgandy tip .50BMG tracer has a Trace range: 2,679 yards (2,450 m) the M-10 orange tip is 1600 yards and the M-1 red tip is 1,969 yards. Most all the ones I shoot are the M-17 Ed Yeah, I was talking more along the lines of .30 cal tracers (~900m burnout) for burnout range. I've shot very few .50 cal tracers, mostly because they do go so far. |
I cut a 50 BMG tracer apart the other day and from what I discovered I will not be shooting any through my Bohica. The jacket was steel. Not steel core like API stuff but magnetic steel with the tracer compound inside the bullet. I've heard people say it won't hurt your gun but I cannot see how a steel jacketed bullet is good for your barrel. Just my humble opinion. 
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I cut a 50 BMG tracer apart the other day and from what I discovered I will not be shooting any through my Bohica. The jacket was steel. Not steel core like API stuff but magnetic steel with the tracer compound inside the bullet. I've heard people say it won't hurt your gun but I cannot see how a steel jacketed bullet is good for your barrel. Just my humble opinion. Gliding metal jacket. Copper plated steel. Same thing the military has used for about 100yrs in all their small arms ammo. Same thing that was shot through 1903's, m1 garands, M14, m60 etc. etc.. exclusively. The rifling engages the copper, not the steel, and the steel is much much softer than your barrel. Tracer bullets will not wear or hurt your barrel any more than any other bullet. Loaded tracer ammo, however, is sometimes factory loaded with hotter burning powders that will erode your barrel faster with a LOT of use of said ammo. Reloading negates this. |
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I cut a 50 BMG tracer apart the other day and from what I discovered I will not be shooting any through my Bohica. The jacket was steel. Not steel core like API stuff but magnetic steel with the tracer compound inside the bullet. I've heard people say it won't hurt your gun but I cannot see how a steel jacketed bullet is good for your barrel. Just my humble opinion. Gliding metal jacket. Copper plated steel. Same thing the military has used for about 100yrs in all their small arms ammo. Same thing that was shot through 1903's, m1 garands, M14, m60 etc. etc.. exclusively. The rifling engages the copper, not the steel, and the steel is much much softer than your barrel. Tracer bullets will not wear or hurt your barrel any more than any other bullet. Loaded tracer ammo, however, is sometimes factory loaded with hotter burning powders that will erode your barrel faster with a LOT of use of said ammo. Reloading negates this. Reloading does not negate this. Unless you use a cooler burning powder. But this then will more than likely not ignite the tracer compound. But the use of a powder that burns hotter will as you note ignite the tracer compound and cause more erosion of the throat of the bore. But even using a cooler powder for reloading and maxing out a load can "blow torch" the throat and cause more erosion. |
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I cut a 50 BMG tracer apart the other day and from what I discovered I will not be shooting any through my Bohica. The jacket was steel. Not steel core like API stuff but magnetic steel with the tracer compound inside the bullet. I've heard people say it won't hurt your gun but I cannot see how a steel jacketed bullet is good for your barrel. Just my humble opinion. Gliding metal jacket. Copper plated steel. Same thing the military has used for about 100yrs in all their small arms ammo. Same thing that was shot through 1903's, m1 garands, M14, m60 etc. etc.. exclusively. The rifling engages the copper, not the steel, and the steel is much much softer than your barrel. Tracer bullets will not wear or hurt your barrel any more than any other bullet. Loaded tracer ammo, however, is sometimes factory loaded with hotter burning powders that will erode your barrel faster with a LOT of use of said ammo. Reloading negates this. Reloading does not negate this. Unless you use a cooler burning powder. But this then will more than likely not ignite the tracer compound. But the use of a powder that burns hotter will as you note ignite the tracer compound and cause more erosion of the throat of the bore. But even using a cooler powder for reloading and maxing out a load can "blow torch" the throat and cause more erosion. Most common rifle powders will ignite tracers, including 4064, 4895, Varget, h335 and others. Some will not, but most of the common ones will, and do no more harm than with any other bullet. (.30 cal range bullets). For the .50, most any powder will ignite them. I'm not aware of any that will not at all. |
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I cut a 50 BMG tracer apart the other day and from what I discovered I will not be shooting any through my Bohica. The jacket was steel. Not steel core like API stuff but magnetic steel with the tracer compound inside the bullet. I've heard people say it won't hurt your gun but I cannot see how a steel jacketed bullet is good for your barrel. Just my humble opinion. Gliding metal jacket. Copper plated steel. Same thing the military has used for about 100yrs in all their small arms ammo. Same thing that was shot through 1903's, m1 garands, M14, m60 etc. etc.. exclusively. The rifling engages the copper, not the steel, and the steel is much much softer than your barrel. Tracer bullets will not wear or hurt your barrel any more than any other bullet. Loaded tracer ammo, however, is sometimes factory loaded with hotter burning powders that will erode your barrel faster with a LOT of use of said ammo. Reloading negates this. Reloading does not negate this. Unless you use a cooler burning powder. But this then will more than likely not ignite the tracer compound. But the use of a powder that burns hotter will as you note ignite the tracer compound and cause more erosion of the throat of the bore. But even using a cooler powder for reloading and maxing out a load can "blow torch" the throat and cause more erosion. Most common rifle powders will ignite tracers, including 4064, 4895, Varget, h335 and others. Some will not, but most of the common ones will, and do no more harm than with any other bullet. (.30 cal range bullets). For the .50, most any powder will ignite them. I'm not aware of any that will not at all. I have used 5010, 872, and 860 with tracers and they all ignited. Ed |
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I cut a 50 BMG tracer apart the other day and from what I discovered I will not be shooting any through my Bohica. The jacket was steel. Not steel core like API stuff but magnetic steel with the tracer compound inside the bullet. I've heard people say it won't hurt your gun but I cannot see how a steel jacketed bullet is good for your barrel. Just my humble opinion. Shooting a few tracers will not do any harm to your barrel. You wouldn't notice any difference after hundreds of them unless it was a match gun and you knew how to use it. |
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