cap and ball tracers?

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Busyhands94

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anybody know how to make them? it is even possible? i have had a few ideas on how i could make them and preserve the tracer compound in the seating process. i was considering getting some hollow point bullets, and filling them with phosphorous. then, i could load my NAA Super Companion with Bullseye and seat them carefully. hopefully, if all goes well i will get high velocities and i will get a nice clear burn from the tracers. i have used Bullseye before in my Super companion, carefully might i add. i can get some pretty blistering velocities! it's real fun! i did see those little stickers you can put on the base of the bullet that glow from when the powder goes off, i would try them, but they are so darn expensive for just a little experiment.

on a side note i have done some experimenting with different loads in my NAA .22 Magnum cap and ball pistol. i like to put 2 grains of Triple Seven in each chamber, a wad, and some small pyrotechnic "stars" on top of the wad, and then i use a pellet to keep it in place and to serve as the projectile. i can get a neat flare like effect from doing that, the stars shoot out a couple feet in front of my muzzle, red, green, blue, whatever i put in there. it's a real blast for plinking in dim conditions! i even tried putting those little beads from crackling fireworks on top of the wad, that gives it a nice crackling effect after the initial shot. it's really fun!

~Levi
 
I think that one of the problems that you are going to experience with trying to make tracers is the "Flash-Over" when you fire the gun. I would think that it would ignite your tracer materiel in the other chambers at least and worst case set you up for a possible chain-fire.
 
Levi,

Keep tryin' you'll probably come up with something that will work. Laquer though?? It's almost as flamable as Black Powder!!

When you start experimenting, I suggest ONE chamber at a time.
 
Here's some I made one time:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9oelGbefDo

I just cut open a roman candle and got the little balls out of it, then put one on top of each powder charge before seating the bullet. As you can see, they don't follow the path of the bullet like a true tracer. In each shot I hit the gong with the bullet, but the balls sort of wandered around.:D

I believe you can buy tracer material at http://www.hi-vel.com

You have to drill a hole in the bullet, then wet the powder into a paste, pack it into the hole, then let it dry. I didn't have much luck when I tried it with .44-40 though.

Edit: here's the webpage for the tracer material:

http://www.hi-vel.com/Catalog__25/Tracer___Incendiary_Components/tracer___incendiary_components.html
 
Tracers are located on the base of a bullet, correct?
I've never fired or seen one up close so have no idea, I'm going off wikipedia.
 
During the Siege of Vicksburg, the Third Louisiana watched in horror as the Union soldiers pushed a cotton clad railcar toward their position. Since the artillery had been neutralized, there was nothing they could do while the Union soldiers advanced the car and dug their approach trench from behind its safety. All the minie balls they fired at the car were absorbed into the densely packed cotton.

Then one clever Confederate got some cotton and soaked it in turpentine. He then placed the cotton into the base of his minie ball and fired it. The burning powder ignited the cotton as the minie hurled at the cotton clad car. Smoke was seen emanating from the railcar. Now that they had a means of defeating the railcar, the Confederates poured more fire into it while others directed their fire against the Union soldiers who were attempting to extinguish the flames that threatened their rolling barrier. In the end, the railcar burned, leaving the Union soldiers to dig much slower.

Thus closes our lesson from the dustbin of history.
 
Correct. On the base of the bullet.

Hmmn, where is the base of a round ball? I reckon wherever you drill it out for the tracer material.
 
or what about conicals? that might be interesting! thanks for the link Pulp, i figure i could get some of that tracer stuff, and put it on the conical bullets for my NAA pistols and have a little fun with that! i would also get the opportunity to see where my darn shots are going!

I am going to buy myself a used Marlin model 60 in the next couple weeks, buy some cheap ammo, a couple bottles of that tracer stuff, and make my own .22 tracers for cheap! that would be awesome!
 
or what about this... put a dab of glue in the base of the Minnie ball and then putting some fine steel wool in there. i will make up a few of those and try them out. maybe i should do some experiments on this, and when i do i will get back to you guys on how it works out. i will try making a mound of mud to shoot at, for safety's sake.
 
Maybe you can try experimenting using .22 pellets. They usually have a totally hollow body and skirt which would allow for packing in more of the tracer material with the least amount of effort since each projectile would require less modification. :rolleyes:
 
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You could drop in size and put those little glow sticker things all over a ball. hell you may not even need to use a wad because of it...
 
I live in Canada and this stuff is illegal but what you have to consider is what is it going to do to the bore of your rifle.
Things that glow brightly burn hot and can fuse metal including the bore of your gun.
 
Watching that video, while entertaining, caused me to wince as I watched one *tracer* smolder in the grass. With the ongoing drought in Oklahoma, all vegetation is little more than tender, and anyone caught shooting such an affair here would be strung up promptly. We've got real wildfire problems and several families have lost their homes. I'm just saying, be really careful about the possibility of inadvertently starting a wildfire.

Steve
 
Stellar, that video was made several years ago, early in the AM, the grass was wet with dew. No way would I try something like that with the drought we have going on now.
 
I can give you a War between the States type Minnie Ball tracer of sorts...very easy to make and a hit on a rainy day of a BP Silhouette shoot ... take a little powder and mix it in with yur Minnie ball wax lube and place it in the hollow base of the bullet... was a real kick in my .58cal Remington Zouave on that rainy day in the Pistol house .... we passed that around and targeted ranges of 300 yards or better ... made a nice white smoke trail until it went CLANG!!!
:O)
 
At a cowboy action match, I watched one fellow using candle wax wads between the powder charge and the ball. Lots of times the bit of wax stuck to the back of the ball as it went downrange, leaving a smoke trail.

Bits of candle wax would be easy to use; put powder in the chamber, scrape a candle across the mouth of the chamber, then seat the ball.

At least you would not risk a pyrotechnic event experimenting with this....
 
Levi, remember that Kalifornistan is the "you can't have it (or do it)" state as the notation in your location info so eloquently points out. One of the many "you can't have it's" in this state is tracer ammo, due to the dry summers therefore an abundance of fuel for wildfires just waiting for a source of ignition. You don't want that source coming from something you did in the pursuit of innocent fun. Please be careful and stay on the right side of the law.
 
The phosphorous that creates the tracer is on the base of the bullet, filling a hollow point with phophorous would just be a waste. The red you see on the bullets of Metallic cartridges is just paint to show that its a tracer round.
 
I watched a hung WP rocket come off on landing and burn damage a concrete runway and scare the pilot, following the bouncing fireball down the runway. This was many years ago in the USAF as medical support for an inflight emergency. The runway was closed for 4 days for repair, concrete is a lot tougher than skin.
 
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