This afternoon at the range, the wife was shooting her (my) AR and I thought I saw what looked like a vaportrail following the bullet out to the target. Am I seeing things? Is this what they mean by "hot loads" ha ha. In all my years I'v never seen such a thing. Have you?

Very likely you caught just the right angle. For better vapor trail viewing, set up a spotting scope behind and barely to the side of the shooter, relatively level with the rifle. With practice, you will be able to call hits at ranges beyond your spotting scope's capabilities and save trips downrange (Unless you got a range with pits - you lucky bastard [:)])

The realistic vapor trails were my favorite part of the movie "The Matrix." It was refreshing to see a movie where it was evident they actually knew something about guns. I would have expected to see complete cartridges flying down range from other American directors.


White

These are the most aparent when shooting in a high humidity environment. It is caused by the low pressure area behind the bullet, as the pressure drops so does the temp. when the temp and dew point are the same you get visible moisture. The same phenomena can be seen when watching prop planes take off, fighter planes pulling high G's or the tip vortecies on a helicopter when lifting heavy loads (all in high humidity environments)

  Very, very cool! Wished you could have seen it. It was very distinct to at least 250 meters out, now I see what all the hoopla is over tracer's. Thanks for the info[:D]

The common shooters term for it is “bullet trace” or simply “trace”.
It is a common phenomena, very useful in getting a shooter on target with a mininum of fuss when he’s not sure of his “zero”.
Easy to see from directly behind & over the (prone) shooter, looking about 2/3 of the way out to the target.

Chow-I know what your talking about with the mist created with a jet in a high-g pull-I think the correct term for this is"reallyfriggincool"  Go to an airshow in your area that has the thunderbirds or the blue angels if you want to see some really cool misting.

If you stand about 2 ft off to the side of a shooter (pistol is better but rifle will work) and stare at the target downrange on a sunny day, you can watch the bullet go down range with your peripheral vision. Your peripheral vision picks up movement much better than dirct vision.

If you want to see this every time, do some longer range shooting.  Take a target out to five or six hundred yards.  Then, stand behind the shooter with a tripod mounted set of optics.  Something around 20x or more.  You will see that vapor trail every time.  It's a neat thing.  That's how we follow the bullet shooting benchrest at long ranges.