Tracer rounds in a handgun

So I'm putting together a survival kit and want to include the second smallest .22 I can get my hands on for $200. (the smallest gun I'm not going to buy cost about $6000) I would like to load the gun with tracer rounds. That way if I ever got lost in the woods I can be found easier. According to cabelas you can't shoot their tracer .22 round through a handgun. Is this is a good rule that I might set my hand on fire shooting through such a small gun if I break it or is it just one of those liablitiy rules that doesn't make too much sense?

While I've got the pros answering questions. Anyone know of a smaller better .22 than this one?

http://www.naaminis.com/lrifle.html

If you want to be found easier, buy a flare gun or a mirror. 22s barrels aren't especially known for their durability for tracers. If you want to buy tracers for a handgun, get tracers for a 45 ACP. It's subsonic and will allow people to track your fire easier.

Flare guns( or hand held flares that shoot) are a much better choice.

Instead, buy a quality compass and learn how to use it.
Sheesh, for that kind of money, I think you can have a satellite radio thingamujig that you pull the seal and alert the closest agency to come and find you.

That will allow you to buy a less expensive gun to have in your case that will be good for protection. What good is a 22 if you are in wilderness and a bear attacks, or some tribe attacks?

a 6000.00$ .22? something stinks

Compass, GPS, mirror, and the highly underrated but ever useful whistle.

Then, and here's the important bit, learn how to use em.


Tracers really aren't intended for this sort of thing, and honestly, just don't work that well for it. A tracer is a pretty small and brief bit of light, especially out of a .22

A tracer would look nothing like a flair gun.

A tracer load would just be like was mentioned, a flash of light, going as fast as the bullet, almost like an extremely quick line (which is basically the trajectory of the bullet that is visible due to some kind of incendiary material).

A flair gun would be like a slow-moving rocket and would last a lot longer and would be much, much brighter.

A tracer is so the shooter can see where the POI (point of impact) is during machine gun use (like one out of every 5 bullets would be a tracer load). A flair gun is designed to draw attention to yourself, to show you are in distress. It may be likened to a DISTRESS SIGNAL!

I wouldn't want to shoot any gun that weighs half an ounce, .22 or not. What's it made of? Hydrogen?

All you need is a handheld GPS and you will never get lost in the woods. The flair gun is also a good idea.

Also, don't forget that the tracer has to come down somewhere. Where will it come down?

.22LR tracers would be all but invisible to everyone except the guy who shot it. Tracers are not supposed to be all that visible from other angles because they would pin-point the firing location and draw return fire.

And that is with real military tracers. .22 tracers are Mall Ninja BS and don't even work that well.

(the smallest gun I looked up weight .5 oz and costs $6000) A .22? That is impossible.
Please provide a link so we can see it for ourselves.

Also, don't forget that the tracer has to come down somewhere. Where will it come down?
__________________

And so would a flare! Either one makes me, a Southern Californian, think about the wildfires we had recently that burned thousands of homes. If you cannot understand what to do with a handheld GPS unit, a compass and a local map, then STAY ON THE FREEWAY. And don't fling your ciggybutts out the window either.

Cordially, Jack

Me thinks that maybe we are having our collective legs pulled!!!!:uhoh:

Ok I should probably clear a little bit up first. The worlds smallest gun I'm not going to buy cost $6000. A 4.5 oz .22 I'm going to get is about $200. I'm on a search and rescue team. Just trying to put together a survival kit that encompasses everything. Always be prepared for everything. The weight of a signal flare isn't worth carrying. But if I can shoot tracer .22 rounds it couldn't hurt to have another tool in the kit that might come in handy sometime. Like if we find a lost person the quickest way to alert a search helicopter of our general location. Plus it would double as a normal bullet to shoot whatever else I need to shoot......smaller than a bear of course. Sorry my first message was a little unclear.

So to clear up my question. It sounds like tracers wear out a .22 a little faster. But I'm planning to shoot 30 rounds or less a year through it so that's not a big concern. But is it even ok for that? Or is it safe?

If they make a 22 tracer round, I would think you could feasibly shoot it out of a pistol.

It may need long barrel length to get the incendiary part ignited, but I don't know. The only tracer I ever saw shot was when I was a kid (in the 60's), my older brother bought a box of 5 - 12 gauge shotgun tracers and we shot them in the air.

Like I say, what I remember was a long (extremely fast) flash-like streak.

Certainly, if you were not looking, you probably wouldn't have seen it. It was easier for us to see as we were pretty much directly below the path it took into the sky.

Now nighttime might be different altogether. We never shot them at night, we shot up all five in a row, we were so excited. Then, end of tracers.

According to cabelas you can't shoot their tracer .22 round through a handgun. Is this is a good rule that I might set my hand on fire shooting through such a small gun if I break it or is it just one of those liablitiy rules that doesn't make too much sense?

Did you bother reading the reviews of the tracers offered by Cabelas? They don't work consistently. Quality appears low. Squibs were reported as a problem. I don't think they are the kind of product you want in a survival kit.

Back in WWII didn't they make grenades that mounted onto the end of their M-1's to make on sorta grenade launcher? I wouldn't be surprised if some had adapted this for a flare that hooks onto a pistol... Or if not, I need to get my patent papers in order...

A 4.5 oz .22 I'm going to get is about $200.So, a NAA mini-revolver it is for your "survival Kit" then?

Take my advice and get a real gun you can hit something with, or don't take one at all.

If you want signal flares, get a flare gun:
http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=74456&pdesc=Orion_12_Gauge_Aerial_Handheld_Signal_Kit&aID=28C&merchID=1009&r=view

Or these:
http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=75942&pdesc=Orion_SkyBlazer_Aerial_Signal_Kit_4_pack&aID=28C&merchID=1009&r=view

Back in WWII didn't they make grenades that mounted onto the end of their M-1's to make on sorta grenade launcher? I wouldn't be surprised if some had adapted this for a flare that hooks onto a pistol... Or if not, I need to get my patent papers in order...

I don't know about hooking onto a pistol, but I have definitely had experience with a firearm-initiated flare.
Unfortunately it was in my wild days at school. A classmate brought it to school, the 'thing' got opened and ignited. It skipped across a winter soccer pitch and set the whole lot on fire! The fire brigade was called and we got into some serious trouble.
It is a wonder I survived school. We had a favourite pastime of making nut and bolt bombs (two large bolts joined by a central nut filled with ground match heads and pieces of striker. It was all very grand (nice explosions and some good smoke) until one of those bolts almost took a fella's earlobe off. Then we were coy about the bolts all of a sudden.

I can't find a picture of the thing we used to burn the play field. It was similar to this, but shorter and wider:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g154/Odd_Job/15mm-Comet-Flare.png

I still want to see the $6000.00 half oz. .22 pistol

Try and find a lightweight flare gun, honestly, how much can once weigh?
For a .22 revolver, try something you can actually hit with, like a S&W 317.(I believe they are still very lightweight.)

A pen gun type of flare gun would be a lot more visible and add only a few ounces (with flares) to your kit. 22 tracers will work in a pistol. I've fired them from a Beretta 21A which is about the smallest 22 I can hit something with at greater than 10 yds. A J frame revolver would be better.

Thanks for all your help to this forum. I'm brand new here and it looks like there is very good participation on here. Someone asked for the link to the $6000 world's smallest gun. It's 2.34 MM

http://www.swissminigun.ch/gallery_steel.html

As far as what I've gathered. It sounds like you can shoot .22 tracer rounds through a handgun. So I'm going to give it a try. For what I'm doing I have to justify every oz and I can't justify bringing a full size gun and definitly can't justify a full size flare gun. To me I just figured if I'm going to have ammo, it might as well be tracer ammo because it might aid in the efforts at least a little bit. I may upgrade the gun I'm going to get to a .22 mag at least so I can pack a little more punch. One thing I definitly do know about any kind of wilderness survival, there is no wilderness exactly the same with the same conditions and there's no survivalist that will agree on the exact same gear. The top 5 survival experts in the nation, recommend 5 different things as their number one tool they would have for survival. One of which is a plastic bag..............Again thanks for the help.

It's 2.34 MMWell it's not a .22.

For that matter, it's not a gun either.
It's more like jewelery for bored rich people!

If you are on a search and rescue team, wouldn't your basic kit already have some kind of signaling device? I am not sure as to why a flare gun would eat up valuable space in your kit. Especially when the main reason for your searching is to be found when you find the people you are looking for.

As for the tracer round idea: i think that a few bottle rockets would be far more effective. And having a flare gun would be nine million times better than that.


I may upgrade the gun I'm going to get to a .22 mag at least so I can pack a little more punch
If you are really concerned about packing "more of a punch" you need to look at a serious fire arm and not those little pocket revolvers.

Better yet, get an iPhone 3G. It has built in GPS and you can browse THR from wherever you have a cellular signal!

Well it's not a .22.

For that matter, it's not a gun either.
It's more like jewelery for bored rich people!

It isn't a .22, but it most definitely is a gun - a firearm. Just because it is small does not negate what it is.

Well it's not a .22.

Yes thank you for pointing that out, as I never claimed it was a .22 just saying it's a small expensive gun


I guess when I'm on a forum for guns, I'm going to get people saying I need a bigger badder gun. Fact is 75% of our members don't carry guns at all. For fast, light, efficienct, with radios, teams, GPS, maps, and compasses, a gun or flare gun just isn't worth the extra pounds at least in the area we serve. To me it is If I can find one small enough for the 1 in a 1000 times I might need it. Plus I might as well have tracers rounds because their no downside to them and may or may not come in handy at some point. But like I said no survivalist will ever agree on a number one tool for wilderness survial. Many don't carry guns, while others put it their number 1 priority. Just depends on the person, area, time of year, situation, and objective.

But like I said no survivalist will ever agree on a number one tool for wilderness survial. Many don't carry guns,

I wouldn't call a person who's not carrying a gun, a survivalist by any definition.