tactical tracer

[m700m]

yes, i hope that i am not repeating a thread. i tried the search function. does any one know if the federal tactical tracer xm856 is saami pressure? i see that it is marked 5.56, any one using this yet? if so what do think? thanks Don.......

[Robb Jensen]

It's 5.56mm NATO pressure M856 tracer. Be careful with it, it easily causes fires.

[m700m]

thanks gotm4, i think i will pass. our rang is quite woody, and if you start a fire here, the fire dept will charge for deployment. D........

[ST911]

Now seen locally, $9.99/bx retail.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j18/Skintop911/MISC/XM856.jpg

[markm]

856 is really useless for most folks. Even at 200 yards, you'll barely get the tracer lit before it hits the gong or berm. You probably need to be at 300-500 yards before the trace is worth anything to the shooter.

[Wayne Dobbs]

demigod,

The M856 rounds that we fired in Iraq (about 20-30 of them total) were showing a visible daytime trace inside of 25 meters for us. Is there another version that delays the "light off"?

[Jay Cunningham]

My question is what do you want to employ tracers for? I am hoping it's not the "3rd round from the bottom" thing to supposedly alert you when you are almost empty...

[markm]

The only ones I've fired are Winchester M856 (WCC). At dusk we could barely catch the tracer lighting before it hit the 220 yard gong.

I'm not 100% sure, but I thought the norm was 120 yards before visible lighting on M856, and 80 yards for the Red tip (55 grain M196?) tracer.

[UVvis]

I shot a couple boxes of these earlier in the year. They all lit up and went down range. I was using them to show a couple new shooters wind drift and gravity effects on bullets with added fun factor. I wasn't shooting them for groups or from a machine gun or anything.

[ST911]

My question is what do you want to employ tracers for? I am hoping it's not the "3rd round from the bottom" thing to supposedly alert you when you are almost empty...

Nope. Just noting arrival. The commercialization of these loads is interesting.

Useful for some "Wow!" points with crowds in certain demos, too.

[Wayne Dobbs]

I think that marketing and shooting these rounds is asking for trouble. I bet quite a few folks have had an "aw shit" moment with tracer ammo when they started a fire with them. If we set some hadji dump on fire with them, that can be handled. If you start a wildfire with them in CONUS things will be considerably more complicated. Plus, this gives ammo to the folks that hate us and want to legislate our shooting activities out of existance.

[ST911]

I think that marketing and shooting these rounds is asking for trouble. I bet quite a few folks have had an "aw shit" moment with tracer ammo when they started a fire with them. If we set some hadji dump on fire with them, that can be handled. If you start a wildfire with them in CONUS things will be considerably more complicated. Plus, this gives ammo to the folks that hate us and want to legislate our shooting activities out of existance.

More than one citizen has set prairie grass ablaze with conventional rounds and certain reactive targets. Add an indiscriminate shooter with "cool!" as an ammo selection criteria, and it's a recipe for disaster.