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Posted: 1/31/2011 1:36:10 PM EDT
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Picked up some old surplus 50BMG tracer ammo at a local gun show (red/burgundy tip). Ammo looked old and brass was tarnished.
Shot two so far out of an Armalite AR-50 at 300 yard targets which were fine, but neither rounds lit. WTF? These things should have lit as soon as they left the barrel correct? Anyone else experience this with old tracer ammo? |
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Was it surplus or remanufactured? If there are noticable pull marks on the bullet (a line on each side) it's more then likely reman'd. If they are true surplus they probably weren't stored correctly and moisture got to the tracer compound. Try pulling one to check it out, the easiest way to tell if they're bad is if the neck is split on the brass. The compound is hygroscopic and attracts moisture causing them to swell and split the brass and ruin the tracer compound.
You can try pulling them down and reloading them, when you reload them be sure to put a small pin hole in the foil that covers the tracer compound as this will get them to light every time. |
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Quoted:
You can try pulling them down and reloading them, when you reload them be sure to put a small pin hole in the foil that covers the tracer compound as this will get them to light every time. Wow! great tip. I'll give this a try. Mine only light about 50% of the time. |
| I cut a tracer round in half a while back and it is STEEL JACKETED (I could pick it up with a magnet). I shoot API in my rifle all the time but I'm not messing with tracer in my gun. When I cut it apart the whole inside was the tracer material burned bright red when I lit it with my torch. The material did not just burst into flames as soon as the fire hit it. It took about 1 second to light it. |
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Quoted:
I cut a tracer round in half a while back and it is STEEL JACKETED (I could pick it up with a magnet). I shoot API in my rifle all the time but I'm not messing with tracer in my gun. When I cut it apart the whole inside was the tracer material burned bright red when I lit it with my torch. The material did not just burst into flames as soon as the fire hit it. It took about 1 second to light it. Normal. It takes a second or two for the tracer compound to light. Even shooting out of your rifle, they light up at about 80-150 yd for me. The jacket is what's called a "gliding metal" jacket. Copper plated steel. Used by a lot of various countries' militaries. Some have nickle plated steel, too. The copper/nickle is the only thing that engages the rifling, and testing has shown that they wear the rifling no more than solid copper jackets. You'll find .30-06 M2 ball/AP, and M80 ball, tons of com-block 7.62x39/7.62x54r ball, among other calibers/countries with copper plated steel jackets aswell (I think German or Austrian M80 ball has the nickle plating, silver looking bullets–– Swiss GP11 7.5x55mm has this aswell). If you shoot them into sand/gravel at night you get a nice little spark show. |
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In my experience, which is fairly limited since I set that pasture on fire, old tracers often don't light.
Maybe 1/2 the time they'll light if you are lucky. But when they do, they'll ricochet in the strangest situations and burn for a long time, setting the pasture on fire. I haven't shot a 50 BMG tracer since the Good Lord saw fit to help me and my buddy put out that 5-acre grass fire we started. Could have just as easily been a 5000 acre grass fire. -David Edgewood, NM |
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Right,
If you are shooting tracers. The question is not, if you are going to set something on fire. But when are your going to set something on fire. Shooting for a back stop that is beyond the "Lit" time is not a sure answer. The bullet casing is still very hot when it lands even though it is not lit. Tracers as far as I am concerned is for the desert or quarry with no chance of bouncing out of the quarry. |
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Quoted:
Right, If you are shooting tracers. The question is not, if you are going to set something on fire. But when are your going to set something on fire. Shooting for a back stop that is beyond the "Lit" time is not a sure answer. The bullet casing is still very hot when it lands even though it is not lit. Tracers as far as I am concerned is for the desert or quarry with no chance of bouncing out of the quarry. Or places during times of the year when you couldn't set the woods on fire with a tanker of kerosene... 3-4 months out of the year we have low to moderate fire danger around here. The rest of the year either it is too wet or the vegetation is too lush to allow much to burn. The Knob Creek night shoot has tons of tracers. In April you couldn't burn those woods down. It always concerns me during the the October shoot. I don't shoot tracers in general anyway. |
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