what coating is on a tracer round?

[1 FMF]

for typical military surplus tracer rounds, .308, what is the coating that makes it a tracer round?

Range I go do doesn't allow tracers, and one guy there said it'll cause a fire that's why they don't allow them although we're firing into a huge sand/dirt bank and there's really no combustible material around other than the trees and grass in the surrounding woods

 

[JohnBrowning]

It is not a surface coating. The base of the bullet has a combustable material that emites the bright burning orange,green or blue color depending on whoses tracers you are seeing. The weight of the tracer chages in flight as the combustable material is consumed. Tracers are not accurate at all and are used to walk in fire to a postion. You usualy use them 1 ever 3-5 rounds or less dependign on applications. THe higher the rate of fire the less often you need one in link or mag.

I might be bit off an welcome correction!

 

[1 FMF]

"Tracer bullets are also sometimes used, but more often in light MGs. These are hollow at the base to contain a chemical which burns in flight to reveal the trajectory of the bullet and indicate whether the shooting is on target. However, the bullet tends to be lighter (and gets lighter still as the chemical burns) and the gas emitted by the tracer also affects the bullet drag, so no tracer can provide exactly the same trajectory as a ball or AP round"

ok, I think the surface coating I'm able to wipe off is just a paint marking to identify the round as a tracer. After some searching, some of the chemicals that came up being used in tracers are strontium, antimony, and phosporus. So I guess there is some chance of after the bullet lands, if it lands to soon, that the tracer chemical can continue to burn and potentially ignite something that's highly combustible. But I still think all the cig smokers are more of a fire hazard than my tracers.

[ April 21, 2005, 12:47 AM: Message edited by: 1 FMF ]

 

[416Rigby]

Paint on the bullet tip is used to ID the type of ammo. Tracers wouldn't ignite a dirt backstop, must be afraid you'll hit the trees.

 

[Hirev]

Interesting.. about the tracer ammo being banned from the range. In the late 90s or early 2000 Hornady came out with some tracer rounds for pistols such as 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 auto. A deputy Sheriff in Eastern Washington or Idaho. Was using the Hornady the new tracer ammo to practice at a local range. He set fire to the dry grass in the area with a tracer round and stated a huge wildfire that burned many thousands of acres. I don't think I have seen the Hornady Tracer ammo since.