sounds like the m25 tracer
if you really want to test put one securely in a vise
pop a pinhole in the back and light with a torch
if it burns red its tracer
I couldn't get the mother in law to hold one in her teeth while it lit it with a torch. As you can see in the picture above she is not one to argue with.
according to NATO document 'AOP-2(C) - STANAG 2953 - The identification of ammunition', orange is only for experimental/test ammunition and used only by the following countries:
- Canada
- Denmark
- Greece
- The Netherlands
- Portugal
- USA
HIH
Buckshooter may be right, it is a MIL (Mother In Law) cartridge! LOL!
This may be in writing , But I have handled thousands of 7,62 rounds and fired many more while in uniform between 86 -98 and still have a wad of 7,62 tracers in cans and guess what they may burn red but they are orange tipped. It's just the color LC put on them to notate tracer. Not experimental anything , at least on small arms ammo. On the old M196 tracer and the early belgian M856 tracers they were red tipped , but even current LC M856 is orange tipped.
If your projectiles have an orange tip, then they are NOT M-25's. Orange tip is the STANDARD color code for M-62 (7.62x51mm) and M-856 (5.56x45mm) tracers. That STANAG document may be being taken out of context about the color orange. Orange (and red) has been used by the US since WWII to identify tracers, not experimentals...
Why not M25 30-06 tracer bullets? ALL my M25 30-06 tracer bullets and loaded rounds have Orange painted tips. Did I miss something that signified these were 7.62NATO projectiles?
orange tip is NOT part of the STANAG itself (as a standardized agreed practice for NATO Members), it is just quoted in an Annex so as every member knows (identifies) the other colors they may encounter (e.g.: UK uses purple tip for test ammo).
This STANAG, though recently renewed is almost as old as the 1949 Alliance itself (first issue 1951).
Now orange and light red ...
In 1967 the 7.62 belted ammunition -1 tracer with 4 non-tracer rounds had the tracer with a orange tipped prokectile-period.Been there,saw it,done it.Will
The standard USA military marking for a dim-igntion tracer in .30-06 (M25), 7.62x51 (M62), 5.56mm (M856)& .30 carbine (T43) is orange. Bright ignition tracer is marked with a red tip code in all calibers except for 7.62x51, where the red tip is used for overhead fire tracer (no closure cup) but still with dim ignition. Red tip coded bright ignition tracers are: .30-06 (M1), For 5.56 (M196) and .30 carbine, (M16). The standard .30-06 overhead fire M25 has a extra cannulure to ID it (also has PVC seal instead of a copper closure cup & and very heavy base cone) but still has orange for the tip code. There are exceptions for special loadings & other colors of course, but these are the standards for issue ammo. (USA) JH
My bad ammolab. I got the two types switched around. Damn Dyslexia...and old age... No excuse, I even have an M-25 projectile, complete with orange tip sitting right on my shelf... Doh!
D.D.
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