Incendiary Ammo

[Jerry Morris]

These rounds are indeed fun, but also worry me. If they were to get into the hands of someone who wanted to cause trouble and chaos, they could fire them at an upward angle and just like an incomming missle they would plumet to earth with explosive power. Meanwhile Miles away the person who shot the rounds into the air walks away.

Statements like these are what will cost you your Rights. What is the title of this thread? Who mentioned explosive rounds? Miles away, in which caliber? The legitimate concerns of the liabilities of tracer and incindiary rounds are bad enough, magnifying the issue with out of topic explosive rounds and their threat levels is foolishness.

Vague, unsubstantiated statements like these make you look like an antigun nut.

Jerry

 

[jeepmor]

I've considered them for makeshift flares

While packing a pistol in the woods. It would be nice to be able to signal for help if needed. Like the blokes currently stuck on Mt Hood, hopefully alive. I'm betting a well timed flare like bullet in the air could save their frozen bacon about now.

And there is no fire danger in the snow in winter right now. In summer season, not such a good idea.

Note to self - propane tank needs to be almost empty when shooting with tracer/incediary rounds for full effect.

jeepmor

 

[Car Knocker]

they would plumet to earth with explosive power.

Explosive power???

 

[1911Tuner]

Incoming

Quote:

>they could fire them at an upward angle and just like an incomming missle they would plumet to earth with explosive power.<
***************

Ummmm...No. The tracer/incendary compound burns up within about a thousand yards, give or take. By the time it got back to the ground, it'd be all nice and cold.

If you were bein' facetious, disregard the previous comment.

 

[carterbeauford]

I did some shooting at 1-lb propane tanks at night with some 1944-manufacture .303 Brit incendiary a while back. It didn't ignite the propane (too much liquid propane and not enough oxygen to ignite, I guess), but it did make for some neat long-exposure photos.

I have shot many of those tanks and never had one blow up. Tried dousing them with gas, actually throwing them in a fire, everything. The cold propellant usually puts out the fire. Started to get expensive at $2.50 each so I gave up.

 

[Ian]

The tracer/incendary compound burns up within about a thousand yards, give or take.

Not to be nitpicky, but there is a difference between tracers and incendiaries. The incendiary bullets I have don't have any exposed compound like a tracers does; they only ignite when the jacket is ruptured (I think it's a phosphorus compound, and ignites on contact with oxygen).

One of these bullets could theoretically be used the way Gelicious is concerned about. Except that you can't aim a bullet that way, and the amount of incendiary compound is so small as to be almost certainly harmless when fired at a random spot (or rather, no more harmful than any other bullet).

The cold propellant usually puts out the fire.

Yeah, that was my experience too.

I did almost destroy my car windshield with one (fully pressurized) bottle that came whizzing back towards me when I hit it, though.

 

[jeepmor]

OT - propane

It needs to be nearly empty. When you punch a hole in it when it's full it has so much gas around that it actually exceeds the UEL (upper explosive limit). On the other side of the coin, if there is not enough gas/liquid in the tank, it will not have enough fuel/air and will be below the LEL (lower explosive limit). Finding the right balance is the ticket, exactly where that is, I'm not sure. But it will be closer to empty than full.

Like a auto's gas tank, a spark is of the most danger when it's nearly empty and there are lot of vapors present.

The high pressure liquid, normally a gas at atmoshperic pressure, is flashing to gas and sucking all the heat it can from it's environment to change back to a gaseous state. It's called latent heat of vaporization.

 

[RecoilRob]

You guys aren't hitting the propane bottles with a BIG enough incendiary bullet. The Blue Tip 50 BMG round WILL light up a 1lb every time and have also done a half-full 10 pounder.

The 10 pound tand blew up with an impressive fireball (felt the heat back 60-80 yards) and then burned on the ground for a few minutes. The 1lb are the tip...they go BOOM with a big fireball and then go flying off trailing fire. DON'T do this unless the ground is sopping wet!

 

[hockeybum]

well, you could always shoot the guy breaking into your house with the incendiary ammo....

thatd be fun to watch, b******d tries to break into your house and finds himself on fire

 

[Sunray]

"...to see the tracers that ricochet straight up..." That's not the bullet. It's just the trace element that has come off the bullet upon impact.
Trace is not the same as an incendiary. You'd have to have very dry range conditions to start a fire with trace.
"...done a half-full 10 pounder..." At Second Chance long ago, they ran a night tracer festival. Targets were 10-100 pound propane tanks, 25 or so 25 pounders, gasoline, a car, a couple of refrigerators and, of course, some fireworks at roughly 500 yards. About 15 or so shooters with assorted rifles, a Vickers MG and a .50 BMG. The trace did nothing but poke holes. The elements were out by the time they got there. Lovely white cloud gently spreading over the ground. Then Dick Davis opened up with the .50 using trace and some incendiaries. The gentle cloud turned promptly into a great big fireball. Not a single propane tank even moved.

 

[cpileri]

you mean these?

http://www.tacticalforums.com/cgi-bin/tacticalubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=78;t=001048#000002

pics of the insides of the ammo in question. hope it helps.
C-

 

[SDC]

Here's a pic of some of the .303 and 7.62x54R cutaways I've done; L-R, a BIV Incendiary, a Buckingham Incendiary/Smoke Tracer, and an Italian AP-Incediary (these three all use white phosphorous inside the jacket as the incendiary payload), with a 7.62x54R API on the right that uses a magnesium/potassium dry incendiary compound that ignites under pressure (all replaced with yellow putty in these cutaways).

 

[thirty-thirty]

I shot a 1# full propane cannister once at about 60 yards with a 762x39 incendiary round. No explosion, just a big ball of fire. The strangest thing happened when I went to look for the can. I couldn't find it. I started walking back to the shooting bench and there it was, about 10 yards closer to the bench than it was when I shot it.
I was puzzled at first. The can had a small entry hole and a larger exit hole. When the gas escaped from the can, the greater amount of gas escaping the exit hole propelled it towards me.