Has anyone reloaded with tracers? Is there anything that i need to know before i start reloading? for instance, do i need to use any special powder, or just the same for any other bullet of the same weight? ANY info on reloading tracers would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

I've loaded and shot quite a few in times past. No trick to loading. Just use an appropriate powder and charge weight.

where do you get tracers?

ebay

If you want the tracers to light "every single time" you're supposed to use a pretty hot powder to fire them up while still in the barrel. I couldn't care less if mine light, and just load 'em like any other round and blast away.

I got a few K of the "20% will light" bunch and still get a 30-40% rate of "light-up" without doing anything special.

USE CAUTION around dry areas as they can catch stuff on fire. At least so I've heard, no proof here,but I don't really wanna test it too bad

Unless you are shooting a high powered rifle at night, in the dark...what would the attraction be ?

quote:

Originally posted by skb2706:
Unless you are shooting a high powered rifle at night, in the dark...what would the attraction be ?

Extremely cheap ammo

Tracers are very inconsistant for any kind of accuracy for sure.some traces light up right after leaving the barrel,and the newer ones don,t start there show until at a certain range from the muzzle. This was as to not let the bad guy know were one was firing from. you can get all kinds of tracers from. www.wiedners.com.

Red tip = long range
Orange tip = short range
Blue tip = incenderary
black tip =AP
green tip .223 are ss109 and I don't know what they are

A cop in the Boise area just about burned the town down shooting tracers in the heat of summer not to many years ago. Be careful with tracers.

quote:

USE CAUTION around dry areas as they can catch stuff on fire. At least so I've heard, no proof here,but I don't really wanna test it too bad
A cop in the Boise area just about burned the town down shooting tracers in the heat of summer not to many years ago. Be careful with tracers.

40 years ago I managed to get my hands on some fresh 38 Special tracers while stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas. Took them out to the CC Gun club to see how they did. 50 yd back stop, 2 shots with a gee that's neat feeling and then a record 50 yd dash to stomp out the fire on the backstop. Lucky for me, I was the only one on the ranges at the time and my idiotic behaviour went unnoticed. YES SOME WILL START A FIRE. Be careful!!

quote:

Originally posted by skb2706:
Unless you are shooting a high powered rifle at night, in the dark...what would the attraction be ?

I don't know if u have been around tracers or not, but i'm pretty sure they can be seen in the broad day light.

Best to check local laws. They could be illegal in dry, fire prone areas.

Eons ago, while in my early twenties, I fired my friend’s .06 while out camping in the Sierras. Immediately I noticed something odd: I saw the bullets flying through the air. But didn’t think much of it as it was only the second time firing a rifle. After 4 or 5 shots I suddenly saw smoke in the brush-pile under a tree. Turning to my friend I asked if we were shooting tracers. “Duh!†He replied, “I don’t know. Just some surplus ammo.â€

We ran to the smoking brush-pile which by now had fully flared up with flames over 6’ tall. Using jackets we beat on it to but no avail… Now panicked about potentially starting a forest fire, we yelled for help toward the other camp in the area. Lucky for us 2 teenagers were there and came running with buckets of water from the creek and after repeated trips up the hill managed to douse the fire.
Shortly afterward – I don’t know how they found out so quickly, US Forest Service employees drove up with blaring sirens to investigate the smoke and asked us if we were firing tracers. Red faced we denied such idiocy, and more fervently so when they explained that we almost burned down the Georgetown airport which was up the hill from us.

Needless to say, I never trusted my friend ever again with his ammo. From then on, I always insisted on using my own instead. Also, IIRC tracers are now illegal in CA.


Talk about a close call . . .

Tracers are illegal to shoot and own in California.

who cares about Cali??? haha jk i'm from kansas

Just a quick update to this thread:

Yesterday afternoon i took advantage of the semi-warm weather and the time change and knocked off work early to do some shootin'.

I took my AR and a couple hundred rounds of M196 out in the "backyard" and proceeded to have some fun.

Engaging targets offhand with irons @ 200-300m, I was getting 90-95% hits. @ ~400m I was leaning against a post and got about the same results. All along with a nice light show

Accuracy from these insanely inexpensive, pulled tracer rounds was right up there with any other ball round available on the market today. I will be ordering a few more thousand here in a few minutes.

Another caution for tracers. I was shooting some 30-06 stuff and had my target against a tree but I was seeing the tracers go through the air way out there. I started testing and it took two, one foot diameter oak trees to stop them. The bullet nose would stick out of the second tree and smoke would pour out of the entrance hole. Two feet of green oak is nothing to sneeze at.
No wonder the M1 was the best battle rifle, can't hide behind much from them. Unlike the tinker toy guns they now make our guys use. One 06 round is better then 500 toy bullets sprayed everywhere.

Yeah, I've heard a quote before that I thought was funny. I might have read it here, not sure, but it goes something like:

".308, cause people have a tendancy to hide behind things when shot at."

here's some interesting reviews on tracers:
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/AMM002-3526-1655.html

Also they will ship to California.

Here is how it resides in my memory bank from 1957. For some ridiculously low price I picked up 100 rounds of 30-06 tracer ammo. In one day I put all of them through my newly customized 03-A3 brand new 4 groove barrel. That rifle would not shot a group under 4" after that and it was near or at MOA before that.

Different subject. Twice I have witnessed brush fires started not with tracers but with steel jackets. roger

I shot some tracers at my club once into the dirt backstop of the 100yd range. Thought it was safe until I noticed the burning core squirted out back of bullet on impact and went airborne into adjacent neighborhood. Wouldn't believed it if I didn't see it.