traaaaacers!

They're bad for tire back stops, I know that much(had to put out more than one tire fire because of tracers). Don't know about the barrel though, just watch out for your backstop.
 
jimm,

You should make sure that the ammo is of recent manufacture and does not contain corrosive primers.
Should be lots of fun for extream long range recreation!

Regards,

JD338
 
I suspect the phosphorus ( sp ) is pretty hot therfore not good for a barrel....
 
jd , these are bullets only.i found them in cabelas shooting catalog.evidently they have been pulled from military surplus.ric,how hot are the gases from the powder alone?that brings up another question what lights the farts afire in the first place? jimm
 
check out www.patsreloading.com for surplus tracer pulled bullets. Might be a better deal. I bought a whole ammo can of 224 ones at Perry one year and it was a decent deal.

I won't shoot them in my good barrels, choose to shoot them in a stock AR barrel. Can't say if they'd harm the barrel or not though. I suspect that with cleaning afterwards it should be fine. The ones I have won't light till they are some ways out of the barrel so I don't think heat is or would be an issue.

FWIW the stock barrel I shoot them in, well right before deer season I rezero'd it with 69 gr HP ammo and it shot a 3/4 inch group at 100 much to my surprise. So that barrel has no harm and was NOT cleaned after any tracer shooting. Though I tend to always shoot some different ammo after the tracers (me thinks it might help blow any crud out tahts not needed or wanted after the tracers)

Jeff
 
[ QUOTE ]
I suspect the phosphorus ( sp ) is pretty hot therfore not good for a barrel....

[/ QUOTE ]
We 50 BMG guys burn them all the time. They cause no more barrel wear than any other bullet (at same pressure/ velocity)
I just bought 5,000 50 BMG API for 6 cents each (shipping was another 6 cents each /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif )

I'd check my page on Tracer Sources In additon to 50 BMG they sell other mil surplus.
 
I believe that most tracers ignite about 50 to 75 yards outside of the barrel.

I do not think that the fire material ignites until it gets exposed to fast moving air.

Tracer rounds are constructed with a hollow base filled with a pyrotechnic flare material. In US and NATO standard ammunition this is ussually a mixture of magnesium perchlorate and strontium salts, which yields a bright red light. Russian and Chinese tracer ammunition generates green light rather than red, using boron or copper salts instead of strontium salts, and may include white phosphorus instead of magnesium as the pyrotechnic material depending upon where and when it was made.
 
There are three types of tracers: bright tracer, subdued tracer, and dim tracer. The standard tracer starts burning immediately after exiting the muzzle. A disadvantage of bright tracers is that they give away the shooter's location to the enemy - as an old military proverb puts it, tracers work both ways. Bright tracer can also overwhelm night vision devices, rendering them less useful. Subdued tracer burns at full brightness after a hundred or more yards to avoid giving away the gunner's position. Dim tracer burns very dimly, but is clearly visible through night vision equipment.

Here is where I got the info..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_bullet
 
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