Jump to content

Tracer ammo


Recommended Posts

My father, an ETO vet, brought home about 35 loose rounds of .45 ACP tracer. Still have them and have never fired one. He said that they were primarily issued for use in search and rescue signaling by downed aircrews.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you pull one of these tracer bullets, you'll find that it's a little longer than the standard 230 gr. ball bullet. Don't remember by how much. Note the slightly repositioned cannelure in the photo above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are recipes and procedures online for making tracers in various colors.

Chemicals can be bought at pyrotechnical supply places, oxidizers, fuels and chemicals for colors (strontium, barium, cupric oxide?) and the procedure involves drilling out the back of a projectile and packing a chemical mixture into that hole with an arbor press and punch, the same process as packing a solid fuel rocket engine.

I have a friend who laid in a supply of stuff a few years ago but we haven't got around to making tracers .....yet! We have made some pretty cool rocket engines, though!

 

Google "making homemade tracers" or "making tracer ammo" and the info should be easy to find. If I recall there were several sites with recipes and procedures.

Edited by john
Link to comment
Share on other sites

.223 surplus tracer bullets are/were cheap. Id cut them in half. (Only saving the back end of course) Drill out the base of a fmj .45. epoxy them together. If you poke a hole in the little cup covering the tracer compound they trace right out of the barrel.

 

Wish 223 tracers were still cheap.. Would have loved to try this out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...