Bought a tracer kit.

[Partsproduction]

I bought a tracer kit from American Specialty Ammunition, it was only 20 something bucks and promises 240 bullets or so, doesn't need a press either. All the tracer compounds I ever heard of before require a 20 ton press to load the mixture into the cavity, but this uses a paste method. Has anyone else done this yet?

Read More

 

[Tilos]

I think there are much easier ways to set the woods (or house) on fire than kitchen table made tracers.
YMMV

just sayin'
Tilos

 

[AMProducts]

Why didn't you just buy a big bag of pulled tracers?

Back in the day, when you could send $5 to T. Tyler's PO box and get a pamphlet on how to make your own tracer ammunition, I'll admit I did it and have a copy of the pamphlet around here somewhere.

The reason you need to compress the primers is to make sure they don't come apart, and because there is a specific order the material needs to be put together in. Normally in a production environment all of these tracer pellets are made on a tableting press, which is the same thing they use for making asprin tablets.

The next problem is now you need a way of making a cavity in the back of the bullet to put the tracer compound. If you don't have a lathe forget about it.

In the past when I wanted tracer ammo, I just bought it, getting .223 tracers is pretty cheap and availible (usually about $12/box). Also, tracers will set fires, even wet stuff, in a torrential down pour will be set on fire by tracer ammunition. I learned this the hard way one day when there was a huge thunderstorm going, and we didn't want to take the tracers out of the belt for the M249, in very short order it set a small fire, that we were thankfully able to put out with shovels and fire blankets.

 

[Partsproduction]

Well, the holes are no problem, lots of lathes of all kinds, there's a reason my nick is "partsproduction".

I asked the guy about pressing it in and he said there is no need with their system. We'll see.

Tilos, I have no intention of starting any fires other than tiny but brilliant ones at the rear of the bullets.

AM, The problem is that .40 is not a military caliber, hence pulled tracers are hard to come by. I want to load 10 MM tracers. So, no one has tried this I guess?

 

[AMProducts]

Heh

I've been looking to pick up some 9mm tracers for a while. What I ended up doing was cutting the front end off .223 tracer bullets drilling a hole in the 9mm round, and then jamming the back end of an M856 into the hole. They do work, but you need some hot powder to get them to light, I usually use HS-6 for that.

 

[Partsproduction]

The mixture is supposedly noncorrosive, I may make some solid copper bullets and explore the maximum sectional density that will still result in the bullets stability, a longer bullet with much larger trace capacity would be much fun, especially if the chamber got increasingly larger inside so that thrust would be developed as the bullet got further downrange. So much fun!

We make copper parts for electrical connectors out of a free machining grade called tellurium, we have lots of small scrap pieces to make a few prototypes out of. This copper is so free machining compared to C110 it's amazing, but it's also expensive.

 

[AMProducts]

uhh.... "tellurium" isn't the name of the alloy, that's one of the alloying agents.

Tellurium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's also mildly toxic, but that's why that alloy is so expensive. Doesn't seem to be as toxic as beryllium copper however.

Also, the "stability" is best calculated with what's called "the greenhill formula". However, this formula is only functional for bullets of a specific gravity similar to the sum of lead and copper in a standard bullet. But it can be changed for any material if the specific gravity is known.

 

[gunfreak]

Poly Gun Bags - Main Page

I bought 100 pulled mispec 30cal tracers from these guys for $24 shipped. They work great.

 

[Partsproduction]

uhh.... "tellurium" isn't the name of the alloy, that's one of the alloying agents.

Got yer pointy tweezers out and pick'in microscopic nits.

We call it tellurium, never alloy 145. We don't say "alloy" but it is so obvious that it's an alloy it would be silly.

My understanding was that tellurium itself is many times more expensive than copper itself, last I heard something like $27 a pound. Funny thing though, when you go to sell the scrap you get straight copper scrap price for that type (#2,solid, or whatever).

When we started making parts we didn't know any better and ordered oxygen free C-110, It is a miserable material to work with when you are under the pressure to produce. It was about six months of daily production before someone told me about tellurium alloy.

 

[novamind]

I bought .30 cal. tracers that lite up about 60yards out, so as to not give away your position, they were already loaded though. I have not shot any yet, but that is what the guy at the gun show said, so it has to be true.

 

[Partsproduction]

Yeah, I bought some Israeli 9MM that's supposed to light up down range too, just s few days ago. Trouble is only 2-3 of my guns are 9MM.

 

[AMProducts]

Yea, I wasn't trying to be condescending, I just wanted you to make sure you knew what you had. I think Te is more expensive than $27/lb (maybe the Te copper...).

Regular copper galls too much to machine easily, you need that extra hardness, like from zinc or tin (brass or bronze). That really makes it cut nicely. Same thing applies to it's crystal structure, work hardened copper cuts much better than soft annealed copper.

 

[Partsproduction]

Well, we have been machining it for many years now, we know a little bit about machining copper, yes.