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I have a quantity of 7.62 RG tracer bullets that I want to load to replicate, say a 155MK. No real purpose except it might be a useful training aid where tracer are allowed, but more a project. My question is how the ballistics of a bullet that is becoming lighter and slower are being affected. First I will burn off the tracer compound to see start and terminal weight, but really this needs to be a timed process to be meaningful - not sure I want to risk any of my scales! I just cannot get my head around the physics of velocity and reducing weight and the effect on trajectory. Presumably the reduction in velocity is slowed as the bullet becomes lighter.

Don't overthink it
Weigh them as they are & load accordingly. They're an indicator type round not a match load.
Used for git & shiggles, not chasing V-bulls.

Enjoy! My Swede 6.5 tracer reloads are a hoot.

I have some pulled tracers which have a mass of 139gr averaged over 10 bullets. I load them up using data for a 145gr projectile as this is the closest weight with load data available. Around 7 out of 10 light up, which I suppose is adequate. At 1,000 yards they provide enough information on the wind but are not close in elevation compared to my 155gr ammunition.

With regards to your last sentence... not quite. A boat tail bullet will retain more velocity compared to an identical mass flat base bullet. This is due to air resistance flowing around the bullet and is represented by a better ballistic coefficient value. If the tracer round is losing mass, then the base of the bullet is constantly changing which will affect your ballistic coefficient, and therefore velocity. This is theoretical anyway, I've never measured the terminal velocity of any of my rounds.

saddler wrote:Don't overthink it
Weigh them as they are & load accordingly. They're an indicator type round not a match load.
Used for git & shiggles, not chasing V-bulls.

Enjoy! My Swede 6.5 tracer reloads are a hoot.

OK, where are you getting 6.5 tracer?? Is this pre-made tracer rounds or made from tracer components? If the latter is correct, please tell me where you buy them from!

WelshShooter wrote:

saddler wrote:Don't overthink it
Weigh them as they are & load accordingly. They're an indicator type round not a match load.
Used for git & shiggles, not chasing V-bulls.

Enjoy! My Swede 6.5 tracer reloads are a hoot.

OK, where are you getting 6.5 tracer?? Is this pre-made tracer rounds or made from tracer components? If the latter is correct, please tell me where you buy them from!

Pulled mil-surp bullets from Swedish military ammo, so genuine & top grade. Got two types.
Sourced in country of origin.

saddler wrote:Don't overthink it
Weigh them as they are & load accordingly. They're an indicator type round not a match load.
Used for git & shiggles, not chasing V-bulls.

Enjoy! My Swede 6.5 tracer reloads are a hoot.

You are right of course. Easier to adjust the sights to point of impact rather than trying to calculate theoretical point of impact at different distances and just preserve the fun element. I have some Malaysian tracer, but while they light consistently they only light up at around 400yards and are not particularly bright. They perform consistently, so either this is what they were designed to do or they have all deteriorated the same. That said they are surprisingly accurate (well better than I expected) - not v bulls, but hitting 24 inch plates at 740 meters. The RG stuff is supposed to be new recent manufacture, not pulled, so interesting to see how they perform.

Not all tracer is designed to light up from the muzzle...giving away firers position, etc.

saddler wrote:Not all tracer is designed to light up from the muzzle...giving away firers position, etc.

I have some Russian and Hungarian 54r tracer rounds with the T-46M bullet and they don't ignite until they get 80-100m out, once they do they are really bright.As with most tracer they aren't fantastic in the accuracy stakes as their main use is to correct fire from PK/PKM machine guns.

I wonder how well tracer is at replicating the flight path of ball ammunition when linked for a machine gun. I remember in the long distant past when I used to buy boxes of RG linked 1 tracer to 4 ball that the tracer would shoot much higher at 600 yards than the ball. I suspect there must be a sweet spot at which they both have the same point of impact - maybe 300 yards. Unfortunately I never had a chance to shoot at different distances and rarely shot the tracer which accumulated and was eventually given away. That was when I used to shoot a Winchester 88 lever gun on the original running deer at Bisley and occasionally on MoD ranges by invitation. A time when there was no Melville or Sporting Rifle range and there was a crappy Pistol range next to the Running Deer, probably where the air rifle range is now. A time when Bisley was a very different place.....I digress.

Anyway I would be interested to find out more about the combined ballistics of ball and tracer in machine guns so if anyone can point me to some further info I'd be grateful.

Colin......I don't know about NATO tracer but the Russian T-46 7.62x54r tracer bullet was modified into the T-46M bullet so it more closely mimicked the standard light ball round.Bullet weight is the same as the light ball but it features a slightly stepped bullet and when I have used them at Sennybridge out to 900m the trajectory is indeed close to that of the standard ball ammo and matches the BDC elevation settings on my PSO-1 scope which is calibrated for the standard 150gr LPS ammo.

So if it was linked with light ball for use in a machine gun the trajectory would be close enough to correct fire that any difference would be negligible.