loading tracer

kevin.303

kevin.303

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ok i just received a big pile of .308 tracer projectiles, and want to start loading them. is there a special load i should be usingt o insure they light, or will any listed 150 gr data for my .308/.30-06/.30-40 work?
 
kevin.303 said:
ok i just received a big pile of .308 tracer projectiles, and want to start loading them. is there a special load i should be usingt o insure they light, or will any listed 150 gr data for my .308/.30-06/.30-40 work?
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There's an ignition compound that will ensure they light. Have a look at bullet length vs. seating depth, the tracer bullet is likely longer than a non-tracer projectile of the same weight. If you seat it too deeply with the same powder charge as a regular projectile, you may inadvertently increase case pressure beyond recommended levels. I've never actually loaded 7.62mm tracers (I do 5.56mm) so this is a bit of a guess. Cheers

back40sniper said:
Yes, assuming that tracers are 147 grain or so, 150 grain data will be fine.
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Yeah, that will give you a little safety margin.
 
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Kev,

Russ gave me a bag of them, I loaded them up as 150's, and they flew pretty good. However not all of them lit up, but those are the breaks.
 
The trace element is a phosphorus compound that lights in the air well past the muzzle. The powder has nothing to do with it. Be advised that a lot of ranges won't let you shoot them anyway.
 
They require a certain amount of pressure to ignite the trace, so don't try reducing the loads too much.

I pretty much use a medium load with a fast powder like 4895 or 4064 to ensure proper trace ignition
 
I've loaded about 400 .30-06 tracers in the last couple of months and the safest most intelligent way to load them is by starting from scratch. There is no way you are going to produce safe and accurate ammunition without the use of proper reloading tools.

I used about 100 rds of tracer at the "Battle of the Bulge Match" in Shilo Manitoba, last month. Excellent kit to have. I was the designated sniper on Team SAR and my spotter had no problem seeing my bullet out to 400 meters and he was able to tell me how to adjust my aim quickly.

I loaded the M25 Tracer bullets with 47.5 grains of IMR 4895 which gave me a muzzle velocity of 2,550 fps on average. This is good enough to knock down 50 lb steel plates at 300 meters with no problems. It also doesn't beat the rifle all to heck, either. The overall length I loaded the cartridge to was 3.290" which allowed for reliable functioning of the rifle. I used IMR 4895 because that was the propellant used to manufacture .30-06 National Match ammunition for the US Army. I had an 80% or better success rate with the tracer functioning. And I had little problem hitting milk jugs at about 435 meters with my Garand.


I am a retired Canadian Forces Ammunition Technician currently working in Defence Research if you have any questions feel free to pm me. I will give you the facts , if I can't answer your questions I have a large amount of research data to check into that possibly could have the correct answer.
 
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The trace element is a phosphorus compound that lights in the air well past the muzzle. The powder has nothing to do with it.
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They require a certain amount of pressure to ignite the trace, so don't try reducing the loads too much.
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Where do you guys get this stuff? All of which is complete CRAP!

If tracers were ignited by contact with the air, then it would be fairly dangerous to pull them wouldn't it? Also just how would they be loaded in the first place? Tracers require the heat of the burning powder to ignite them.

It doesn't take much burning powder to ignite a tracer round. There is certainly no minimum pressure required. I have loaded subsonic tracers and they ignite just fine. Subsonics use only a few grains of powder compared to a normal supersonic loading.
 
Actually, there IS most certainly a minimum pressure. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Or use google. There's plenty of info on what it takes to create your own tracers, and the usage thereof
 
sunray said:
The trace element is a phosphorus compound that lights in the air well past the muzzle. The powder has nothing to do with it. Be advised that a lot of ranges won't let you shoot them anyway.
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Suputin said:
Where do you guys get this stuff? All of which is complete CRAP!

If tracers were ignited by contact with the air, then it would be fairly dangerous to pull them wouldn't it? Also just how would they be loaded in the first place? Tracers require the heat of the burning powder to ignite them.
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Uhh... this is a little confusticated ;). He didn't state it was 'ignited by contact with the air', he wrote 'lights in the air well past the muzzle'. That is a correct statement regarding the the trace element. 'The powder has nothing to do with it' is a little off. The powder ignites the ignition compound, which in turn ignites the tracer compound at a somewhat fixed distance from the muzzle. Feel free to correct me if I have this wrong :D.
 
Absolutely NO phosphorous is used in NATO tracer ammunition. Phosprous is ONLY used in Incendiary ammunition. Factory tracer ammunition is loaded to the same specifications as most ball ammunition is, the only difference between the 2 natures of ammo is the projectile.
 
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In the Tracers produced by the US during the late '40's to the '70's the tracer composition included strontium peroxide, strontium nitrate, magnesium and several other items such as binding agents.
 
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