Will tracer ammo damage your barrel?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Tracers don't have the same ballistics so it will make you less accurate if you have rifle rounds shooting from the same gun or in the same magazine.
 
Tracer ammo is made to mimic the trajectory of a particular FMJ load, otherwise it would be useless.

The tracer compound doesn't ignite until it is clear of the bore, so it won't hurt the rifle at all.
 
I trust that you are aware of the fire-hazard of shooting tracer ammo?

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that unless you are shooting over desert, or a large body of water, you never want to shoot tracer ammo at anything you do not want to set on fire.
 
helotaxi said:
The tracer compound doesn't ignite until it is clear of the bore, so it won't hurt the rifle at all.
Click to expand...

Helotaxi nailed it. Your rifle is safe.

Tracers are a close-ish ballistic match to the FMJ ammunition that they are typically linked with. They get lighter as they go downrange, so this does funny things with the trajectory. This change to point of impact is acceptable, because ball/tracer mix is used in machineguns. . . area weapons.

The one thing that you need to consider when shooting tracers is that they will set your range on fire. It's not a matter of "if", but "when". If you've never seen tracers used, you can't possibly appreciate the risk. When the military uses tracers on the range, we have a fire fighting detail on standby. When weather conditions are right, the fire detail stays busy all day. You can mitigate some of the risk with a good backstop, but the risk is still there.

If you have some tracers you want to shoot, go enjoy them. They can be pretty fun. Just do it with a good backstop, and preferably on a wet/rainy day. You'll be disappointed at close range. You need a few hundred meters for the compound to light and give you any kind of appreciable trace.
 
FWIW tracers make sense in rifles that have no last shot bolt open feature like an AK or H&K 91. This applies to serious use only.
 
The tracer compound doesn't ignite until it is clear of the bore, so it won't hurt the rifle at all.
Click to expand...

Is this true? I'm thinking it may not glow until a certain time has past since firing but it has to be burning as it leaves the case. Otherwise, how would it know when to light and what lights it after it leaves the barrel?
 
When you think of the pressure and temperature already happening when a shot is fired, I don't see how the miniscule amount of heat from a tracer bullet would add anything of importance to the barrel.
 
When you think of the pressure and temperature already happening when a shot is fired, I don't see how the miniscule amount of heat from a tracer bullet would add anything of importance to the barrel.
Click to expand...

I agree. And the blast should do a good job of blowing out any little bit of stuff sputtering out the base of the bullet along its path down the bore.
 
This time of year most everything is very dry and fire hazard is a big issue. I would wait until the snow flies or you get a major rain storm.
 
Sport45 said:
Is this true? I'm thinking it may not glow until a certain time has past since firing but it has to be burning as it leaves the case. Otherwise, how would it know when to light and what lights it after it leaves the barrel?
Click to expand...

Generally the compound is a phosphorus or mix of phosphorus and magnesium at times, which would ignite upon contact with the air (after leaving the barrel)
 
................and

.22LR are more actually more fun as they are slow enough to see.

We shoot them into a dirt back stop.
 
The woods surrounding Knob Creek got set on fire at last year's MG shoot. It was incredible. The same happened on the Fort Knox range.

Don't shoot them if it hasn't rained recently.
 
Sport45 said:
Is this true? I'm thinking it may not glow until a certain time has past since firing but it has to be burning as it leaves the case. Otherwise, how would it know when to light and what lights it after it leaves the barrel?
Click to expand...
The heel of the bullet has a seal that is destroyed by firing and it takes time after exposure to air (clear of the bore) for the tracer compound to ignite. BL, it can't ignite in the bore.
 
That makes sense, but is there any air at the base of a bullet in supersonic flight?

I thought the air was split at the nose of the bullet and couldn't move fast enough to catch up with the base.
 
I'm certain that I read somewhere in a manual while I was in the Corps that you should never mix tracers more than 1 to 1 and preferably 4 to 1 as used in MG belts. With that said yes they are lots of fun and as other's have stated have their own precautions. They make a useful training tool to demonstrate how bullets react with hard surfaces such as water. Just be very careful.
 
Whle the large caliber stuff like the 50 cal BMG rounds are designed to not start burning until they are a few yards down range, the smaller caliber stuff like the 7.62mm and 5.56mm often do start burning in the barrel.

The quality control on tracers is not that great. In fact if you shoot enough of them you will see the burning compound seperate from one evey now and then and fly off into a new direction.

If you fire lots of tracers your bore will become fouled much faster.

There was a period of time when we had to use up huge quanities of straight tracers for qualification purposes due to a shortage of ball ammo. So we had troops shooting straight tracers during the qual course. We set all sorts of fires....
After only 80 rounds fired on the Air Force Short qual course (my third branch) the troops had to spend much more time and lots more cleaning gear getting the rifles cleaned up enough to go back into the vault.
 
Last edited:
Tracer compound is hygroscopic and will attract moisture, that's why you see older surplus with split necks or cracked bullets. Whether or not it will affect your barrel is another question, more then likely it won't but if you shoot a lot of them I would clean it at the range.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

4
  • Locked
tracer ammo- damage to bore? Need quick answer!
Replies
9
Views
991
BeltfedMG
B
D
  • Locked
Shooting Tracers?
Replies
11
Views
1K
JA
J
Y
  • Locked
"Expired Tracer" ammo?
Replies
14
Views
3K
longdayjake
longdayjake
R
  • Locked
Shooting 30-06 tracers and AP
Replies
9
Views
883
hps1
hps1
M
  • Locked
.30-06 tracer ammo
Replies
6
Views
6K
hps1
hps1
Back
Top