[kbailey3]

Hello all,

After the Florida Shoot, I started thinking about the possibility of the 50's Yugo 8mm, I was shooting, having some tracers. As far as I know, all tracers should have painted tips, but there is no way of knowing what another country did 50 years ago. So, I have some rounds that were damaged/duds and have pulled the bullets.

What's the best way to check for tracers? Depending on the manufacturer, some tracers have a "delay cap" to keep the tracer from igniting in the barrel. Correct? When I look at the base of the bullets, some have shinny steel/lead appearance, others have a rusted look to them. (these rounds had no powder in the case, and I think they started to rust) Can I drill the base of the projectile with a drill press? I don't want to file/grind on them (just in case they're tracers and ignite). Would there be any weight/length difference's between tracers and standard projectiles?

Any suggestions?

Thanks, kbailey3

 

[mt-ac]

Drilling is a No No

Drilling on tracers would generate just as grinding would. I doubt that bullet weight could be used as a guide due to the wide range of surplus ammo. My best suggestion would be research based on the case headstamp, but this will still have many shortfalls. For example USGI ammo would have date and plant only. My small tracer collection includes the standard red and orange, then to white, green and plain tips on some Soviet Block rounds.

 

[barrelxchange]

Some tracers can be ID'd by the primer sealant on the bottom, also by markings on the case head

The Yugo would have painted tips or a special sealant color around the bullet

 

[Shattered]

There is some weird ammo lots that were included in the Yugo from Century. I've found green tipped, silver tipped, black tipped with a green band, and yellow tipped.

But when you find them, it the entire case, not just an odd round or two. SO if you didn't have anything unusual happen with all the other rounds, forget about finding something cool in your dud pile.

 

[kbailey3]

Thank you for the replies. I just checked a couple belts of ammo. They all have that raspberry colored primer sealant. I was lucky on a few cases of the Yugo ammo, they were on 5 round stripper clips. My Mauser's are now set for life. I haven't seen any painted tips yet. The only tracer's that I have found was a Orange tip .30-06 round in a box of CMP LC. It's now part of the collection. Thanks again. kbailey3

 

[panaceabeachbum]

the one thing that gets me about the Hernando Sportsmans Club is they have a no tracer rule (which I understand) but they allow the use of incendiary ammo. The definition of incendiary is "cabaple of causing fires" . Every shoot I have attended there they allow incendiary ammo and then wonder how the woods gets set on fire. Does anybody else see a corolation here?

 

[Shattered]

Every shoot I have attended there they allow incendiary ammo and then wonder how the woods gets set on fire. Does anybody else see a corolation here?

Nahhh. Divine intervention.The will of Allah or some such crap.

 

[Shattered]

I was lucky on a few cases of the Yugo ammo, they were on 5 round stripper clips. My Mauser's are now set for life. kbailey3

You consider yourself lucky? I wish ALL my Yugo was stripper clip free. What a pain in the ass to get 10 cases of ready for belting. ... and then just what the hell do you do with all the stripper clips? At least with the Turk they were brass and you could scrap them out with all the brass.

Mebbe I'll throw a couple 5 gallon pails of strippers in the Jeep along with dessicant packs for the Oct Creek, mebbe someone else needs to be set for life....

 

[HuecoDoc]

What's the best way to check for tracers? Depending on the manufacturer, some tracers have a "delay cap" to keep the tracer from igniting in the barrel. Correct? When I look at the base of the bullets, some have shinny steel/lead appearance, others have a rusted look to them. (these rounds had no powder in the case, and I think they started to rust) Can I drill the base of the projectile with a drill press? I don't want to file/grind on them (just in case they're tracers and ignite). Would there be any weight/length difference's between tracers and standard projectiles?

Any suggestions?

Thanks, kbailey3

Assuming you don't mind destroying samples in the process, I have gutted 50BMG by crushing them in a vise. I've also scraped them out with a screwdriver because it doen't seem easy to light them. APIT, spotters, etc, probably require more care.

Shoot them into sand when nobody's looking.

 

[skytroop232]

I don't know if this is true for all tracers, but I bought a bunch of 223 that the seller said some was tracer.
He said the tracers are steel core, so a magnet would work to cull the tracers. Sure enough, used the magnet and got about 100 rds out of the bunch, test fired and the steel were tracer and the nonmagnetic were regular rounds.

Good luck,
Bob