Tracers through a suppressor?

[jstrahl]

I'm waiting on my first can to be approved and was wondering if it was fine to shoot tracers through it. I bought about 1000 tracer rounds a few years ago for a great price and haven't shot any of them yet. I did some googling and it seems like the interwebs are split on whether it is safe or not. The main argument against it I saw was that the coating could result in the bullet not stabilizing and it would cause baffle strikes. Most agreed that since the tracer doesn't ignite until 50 or so yards there wouldn't be any additional wear due to heat. What do the experts on INGO say?

 

[poppy]

I believe tracers ignite out at about 100 yds.

 

[wsenefeld]

You may run into a baffle strike if you don't have a 1:7 twist barrel. Even though the tracers are typically only 55gr-64gr, they are extremely long bullets. If using a 1:9 or slower twist barrel, odds are they won't stabilize.

When the US was developing the M16A2, they wanted 1-9 twist to stabilize the SS109 round (used in M855) as it was the ideal twist for that particular bullet. However the companion tracer round (used in M856) as pictured in the post above was substantially longer. The ideal twist for it was 1-6 and the compromise was made at 1-7 as it was fast enough to work with M856 but not so fast as to create issues with M855.

The short story being 1-9 is not adequate for the M856 tracer round.

 

[jstrahl]

Thanks! I new someone would have the answer.

 

[chuckp]

I believe tracers ignite out at about 100 yds.

Tracers start their ignition cycle in the barrel.

Chuck

 

[rjh78]

As Chuck states, the tracer ignites upon firing. Some may not be visible until 75 yards down range, but they will be lit from the get go. The one time I took M856 to the range back in my OK days, I just about set the whole forest alight. We were 200 yards out at dusk, it was windy and dry, and we were young and stupid. There's a video somewhere, where you can see them not stabilized by the barrel, and in the time it took us to hump it back to the berm, we had a grass fire about 10' in diameter crawling up the backstop. Had to stomp it out since there was no water. So just be real careful where you shoot 'em...

 

[AmmoManAaron]

I've run tracers through at least 3 different calibers of suppressed full auto guns (.22 LR, 9mm, and .45 ACP), plus a bunch of other calibers unsuppressed, and never had a problem from them (be careful about the fire danger though, use good judgment). Commercial tracers light immediately upon firing, military tracers generally have a delay element. Some foreign military stuff can have a VERY long delay (300 to 400 yards, subsequent research revealed it was intended for antiaircraft use). Another interesting (and FUN!) thing you may still come across is red-green ranging tracer, it does a color change at approximately 500 yards to help MG gunners judge distance. I've encountered red-green ranging tracers in 8mm Mauser and 7.62x39, but there are probably others.

 

[jstrahl]

Awesome. Thanks for all the great info guys.

 

[deanald2pt0]

I've wondered about this before. I have an ammo can sitting around with 308 tracers in it. But its hard to find a place that will even let you shoot them anymore, so they just sit there.

 

[wsenefeld]

i probably would stay away from this idea

Thanks for the informative response. Big help...

 

[Hogwylde]

The main argument against it I saw was that the coating could result in the bullet not stabilizing and it would cause baffle strikes.

Tracers don't have a "coating" of any kind. The burning tracer compound is imbedded into the base of the bullet. They ARE slightly longer so that they have similar weights to ball ammo. The "hollow" base where the tracing compound resides makes the bullet weigh less, hence the longer length to compensate. As stated above, this longer length is what might make the bullet slightly unstable without the faster twist rate.

 

[jrainw]

Shot lots of tracers through suppressesors with no problems. Well except for when the can was glowing and they started coming out melted, got a few baffle strikes from fragments but I knew it was destructive when we did it.