.50 cal tracer?

[tigbrand]

Hi chaps recently got a load of bomb and fuse fragments from the surrey/kent border(bomb alley)in amongst them was a .50 cal projectile,which is not the standard boat tail type,its longer and does not taper at the rear. Is this a tracer projectile? will post pics later if i get a chance. Thanks tony.:smile:

 

[spotter]

does this help Tony these are modern 50cal but you can see a difference in the bodies.The tracer round is at the bottom of the pictures

 

[roller63]

I think the .303 and 7.62 tracer rounds are different to normal ball rounds too ? I am sure I have got some somewhere with straight sided flat bottomed heads.Tony E would be the best to answer this.

 

[TonyE]

All the .303 tracers from the GI to the G8 were flat based types rather than boat-tailed. Similarly the 7.62mm L5A1 and subsequent marks of tracer were all flat based.

The .50 cal tracers were generally boat-tailed but there were some wartime flat based .50 bullets. I would need to see the picture together with details of bullet length before making a guess at the ID.

Finally, can I be boring and ask that bullets are called bullets or projectiles, and not "heads"? The head of a cartridge is that area that forms the base and surrounds the primer, hence the term headstamp. Sorry, but I have a thing about correct nomenclature. (I know its sad!)

Regards
TonyE

 

[roller63]

Thanks for that Tony. I knew you would know better ! I stand corrected on the mortar cart issue too, about thirty years premature ? I promise not to call bullets "heads" anymore as well ! Tony.

 

[Chris 42 RQ]

Shapes !

Here are three more Tracer Bullets from the 50 Cal-two are fired and the shiny one is unfired and comes from a "Lake City" 50 Cal round of 43 Vintage.
All three have an almost flat base.

 

[Garand]

US Cartridge Caliber .50 Tracer M17

Shot at 2008-10-07

 

[TonyE]

.50

Thanks for that. I presume it is from one of the American TM's?

However, what a dreadful drawing of a .50 calibre round!

Regards
TonyE

 

[Garand]

Actually it came from a Royal Canadian Ordnance Corp (RCOC) publication from the early 1960's.

 

[tigbrand]

50 cal plus a few others!

Ive took some pics of the tracer bullet with a few others.the other 50 cal bullets are detector finds,all from the surrey kent area.the other musket balls and lead bullets are from all over. the bullet c, is the remains of a webley manstopper(im told) no wonder they were made illegal.the bullet marked d is i think a whitworth bullet with the preformed twist,this is only the remains,i have a lithograph showing a complete one. These are only a few of the bits my mate charlie has given me.Hes bringing me next time 3 x ww2 inc bomb remains(german) and a load of fuse and bomb bits all ww2 era.Tony.:tinysmile_grin_t:

 

[Chris 42 RQ]

50 cal plus case neck

Hi Tigbrand it is interesting to note that the top right hand .50 cal bullet still carries the "neck" of the case it once resided in ! was it a "blow up" job from an aircraft I wonder ?

Nice selection of times gone by !

Chris :tinysmile_shy_t: