loading tracer

.30-06 Trivia

Canadian .30-06 produced from 1946 to the middle 1960's, by Dominion Arsenals, used IMR 4985 as the standard propellant in both Ball, M1 tracer & M25 tracer.


The bright red trace of the M1 round is visable at approximately 124 yards from the weapon and burns for 750 to 1000 yds.

On the M25 tracer bullet , the trace is either invisible or dim for the first 25 yds. From 25 yds to 75 yds the trace may be invisible, dim or bright and from 75 to 900 yds bright.


taken from Royal Canadian Ordnance Corp Ammunition bulletins dated Dec 64
 
my experiences with M25 is that they only become visible right around the 100m mark. Once they light up, they trace for approximately 2 seconds.

Nailing a gong with one produces very interesting results on occasion, as the trace element gets knocked out of the jacket, and streaks off at odd (and extreme) angles. It's not unusual to hit a gong or backstop at 500 yards, and see the trace ricochet up at 30 degrees or more, arcing back down to the ground a quarter mile further downrange, and a few hundred yards off to the side of the line of fire.
 
all the more reason to carefully choose when you decide to use trace. Even if your shooting lane is wide and free of flammibles, it's common for the burning trace element to land outside your line of fire. And, especially with the 30 cal stuff - it starts fires easily
 
prosper said:
all the more reason to carefully choose when you decide to use trace. Even if your shooting lane is wide and free of flammibles, it's common for the burning trace element to land outside your line of fire. And, especially with the 30 cal stuff - it starts fires easily
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Sound advice, I totally agree. I only discharge them after a heavy rain or in the winter.
 
Do you think it's the tracer element disloging as stated above or the entire projectile ricocheting? It really makes you realize how dangerous the ricochet can be....it can take any path after it hits the target, any angle, usually not in a straight line. I allways assumed it was the whole projectile. We took some of the 30 cal's today and poked a small hole in the partition in the back of the projectile and they were lighting up right out of the muzzle rather than 200 yards downrange. As far as there being a minimal chance of starting a fire....I don't buy that. Enough of a chance I would never shoot them in the summer.....
 
Actually, there IS most certainly a minimum pressure. If you don't believe me, try it yourself.
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I have. I even underloaded one so much it never even left the barrel and yet it merrily sizzled away while stuck in the barrel. Now if that isn't minimum pressure I don't know what is.

BulletStuckinBore.jpg


IF people are finding some tracers don't ignite then that is more likely the result of old tracers rather than some minimal pressure issue which is pretty well debunked by my experience.
 
The .30-06 M1 Tracer uses a gilding metal cup.

The overall factory length of Cdn manufactured M1 & M25 tracer cartridges was 3.34".

The overall length of currently manufactured Canadian 7.62mm C19 tracer ammunition is 2.260"

Diagram of the C19 cartridge;

cartridgecanadian762mmtsz0.jpg

Shot at 2008-01-25
 
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