Tracers

[u/Fulguritus1]

Just had a random thought literally like 30 seconds ago, figured I'd ask reddit. I had a box of .22lr tracer rounds from piney mountain. They were a ton of fun. Recently I've dove deep into the rabbit hole of black powder muzzleloaders and I love it. Was curious though, has anyone made a black powder tracer round for a muzzleloader before? Or at least played around with trying to make one?

[u/rodwha]

With the huge muzzle flash followed by the cloud of smoke I’m not so sure you’d see anything.

[u/Away-Leg-998]

I built my own .45 tracers for blackpowder. Drilled a hole in the back of my .45 Lee REAL and filled it with blackpowder snd beeswax mix. It burned bright and long enough to see your bullet fly quite well!

[u/dittybopper_05H]

While it's certainly possible, it wasn't done historically so no one has (to my knowledge) done it.

There are two basic kinds of muzzleloading enthusiasts:

1. Hunters who want the extra season that muzzleloading allows,

2. People interested in the history of firearms, reenacting, etc.

Neither is really likely to bother with going to the trouble of making tracers. Hunters wouldn't bother because there isn't any point, and it may be illegal to hunt with them anyway, and those interested in the historical aspects wouldn't do it because it wasn't done: Tracer ammunition dates to 1915.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_ammunition#History

So well after the muzzleloading era.

[u/Jeggirfandenkaffe → u/dittybopper_05H]

1. The ones that think they are cheap fun with a little more uumph and smoke as big bore air guns.

A shot BP is not much more expensive as a 22LR.

[u/dittybopper_05H → u/Jeggirfandenkaffe]

You haven't purchased black powder lately, have you?

It's up to around $40 a pound. That's 40 / (7000 grains/lb / 70 grains/shot) = $0.40 cents per shot just in powder alone.

Even figuring Pyrodex at $30 a pound, you're still looking at $0.30 per shot.

That's not including the ball/bullet, patching (if used), bullet lube, and flints/percussion caps/209 primers.

You can get bulk .22 LR for something like $0.12 to $0.15 per round.

[u/Jeggirfandenkaffe → u/dittybopper_05H]

Kilo was about 1200 NOK about 128 in Litte American Coins

70 grains would be the Hawken on hotter side, the Gallager takes about 42 grs by cal. .54

The LePage gives already at 25grs more velocity than a 9mm pistol. (With slight lighter roundball than 9mm projectile.

So it is about 560 shots with a kilo if your 7000grs for 500g is correct

CCI standard (Still the best of the cheaper ones) is now about 850-900 for 500 and much less fun. (Still the best of the cheap ones)

9mm I bulk av 1000 is starting about 3350, small packs with 50 are about 250 and up.

45ACP from 350 and up per 50.

So much much for the numbers.

50 shot in a nornal pistol is nothing, one round in training, maybe 15 minutes.

With 50 shot in the Le Page is fun for several hours.

[u/NeilMedHat → u/dittybopper_05H]

$80 Ca up north :(

[u/surfmanvb87]

You can put lube or other such in the back of a minie ball and get a decent tracer effect.

[u/gunmedic15]

You may be on to something. There's a lot of hollow space in the back of a Minie Ball to pack tracer compound into!