Where can I get my hands on some tracer rounds? Cheap is nice :)

Gun shows.

Why do you want them anyway? Most are junk accuracy wise, unless you can get your hands on some military grade ones that is.

I knew about gun shows. I was just wondering if you knew any other places. We just want some for the M4 to play with.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ammoproducts.asp?manuid=204&caliber=15&ammoCat=2

Item# AMM-224
Ammo .223 Tracer Red 20-Rd Box FMJ 55 Gr
more info
Sale Price:$6.75

Tracers have a couple of good uses. The main use is to direct fire. Everyone can see where you are shooting and help out. They're also helpful with machine guns in low light conditions.

Plus they're just cool!

http://images.google.com/url?q=http://www.liberatorcrew.com/15_Gunnery/Training/20_Tracers.jpg&usg=__Fw4z34xUpMaQhiwKFYpW5_BgdQg=
Holy balls.

What is it, every fifth round is a tracer? Or is it tenth?

/r/ : Xplain the pic, plz!

Open shutter, lots of tracers...

It's usually every fifth round.

You don't have to have an open shutter to get a show like that. Every fifth round in a machine gun will look like you're firing a laser cannon in Star Wars.

I understand all that, what I'm wondering, is why are they doing that?

They're not studing tragectory or even riccochet, because there are too many firing at once.

I'm not wondering why it looks the way it does, I'm wondering what in the world are they trying to do?

I understand all that, what I'm wondering, is why are they doing that?

They're not studing tragectory or even riccochet, because there are too many firing at once.

I'm not wondering why it looks the way it does, I'm wondering what in the world are they trying to do?

Practice?

I think they were just bored.

I understand all that, what I'm wondering, is why are they doing that?

They're not studing tragectory or even riccochet, because there are too many firing at once.

I'm not wondering why it looks the way it does, I'm wondering what in the world are they trying to do?

I thought it looked like some R&D people doing some testing.

Given the attire I would say that might have been back when tracers were invented.

Turns out it is training for WWII bomber gunners.

http://www.liberatorcrew.com/15_Gunnery/11_Training.htm

That gives me an excuse to go to the shooting range again next year. Woo hoo!

It's usually every fifth round.
Quite a few of the gound pounders I've talked to that were over in the box said that they would load the last few rounds in the mag as tracers so they would have visuals as to when they would need to reload if things got hot and heavy.

HMM
I've never heard of that. That sounds pretty good. You could make the tracer round number 25. Then you would know when you saw it you had 4 left. Or some variation like that.

But I've never worried about running out using these two methods.

I've always been trained on two types of reloads. They vary slightly with different weapons but this would be an M4.

1) Tactical reload:
A top off between fighting. Take your non shooting hand and retrieve a fresh mag then with mag in hand take out used mag and replace with fresh. Always do this with a mag that is not easy to reach. Put used mag back in the same place.

2) Combat reload:
A reload when mag has shot out. While still aiming weapon towards enemy. Drop mag release with shooting hand while retrieving fresh mag with non-shooting hand. Put mag in and drop bolt with non-shooting hand.

that's a common tactic--fighter pilots used to do that in WWII. The armorers would load nothing but tracers for the last 50 rounds or so, so they knew when they were almost out of ammo.

Just remember, boys and girls--tracer rounds work both ways...

Yeah that's the shitty thing about tracers.