5.56 Nato tracer

[Jeff White]

I guess I better hide my tungsten cored, black tipped, FN headstamped AP ammo for my M-1. It doesn't stick to a magnet, so I assume it is tungsten and not hardened steel.

Did you miss this in the law?

"Armor piercing bullet" means any handgun bullet or handgun ammunition with projectiles or projectile cores constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper or depleted uranium, or fully jacketed bullets larger than 22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun

I have personal knowledge of one case where possession of WWII vintage black tipped .30 caliber ammunition was not charged by the states attorney because of the part of the law I highlighted. I won't say that every states attorney will look at it that way, but the one we had here several years back did.

 

[WelshShooter]

I shoot tracer just fine. I've used milsurp (Radway Green) 5.56 and 7.62 in my rifles along with handloaded .223 and .308. I've found that the .223 projectiles had 50/50 ignitions using Ramshot TAC ball powder and 49/50 ignitions using Reload Swiss RS50 (stick powder that's similar to Vihtavouri N-140).

Civilian's are legally allowed to use tracer on military ranges here in the UK as their purpose is to gauge wind direction and speed. One military range I shoot on has targets out to 1.8km and you can shoot .50bmg tracers should you so wish.

 

[tark]

Yep, I did miss that, Jeff. You have straightened me out once again! Now I feel better about my FN AP ammo, but I will probably never shoot it. It is 51 years old. I assume it is NC but not sure. If I ever feel the need to pierce armor, I probably pull the bullets and re-load them into more modern components.

 

[Kingcreek]

Just a FYI side note on the fire issue (several bad farm field fires here yesterday with extremely dry conditions and high winds)

Bowling pins (with Magnesium cores) can ignite when shot with regular fmj rifle rounds. We learned this years ago but I never see it mentioned. No tracers were involved.