Old U.S. military tracers

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

https://www.theoutdoorstrader.com/threads/fs-ft-vietnam-era-5-56-tracers.1627700/

Does anyone know if these 1968 production Olin / Winchester 5.56 mm M196 tracers are likely to still be good?
I don’t have a safe place to shoot a couple hundred yards to test them, considering the fire danger they present when shooting in the woods.

I wonder if Wilson Shoals WMA would mind me popping off a few into their huge mud cliff they call a backstop?

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

When I was a kid in the late 1970s to mid 1980s, my dad would sometimes let me shoot some of his World War II era tracers in 30-06 caliber from an M1 Garand. If I remember right, almost all of them did trace. But that was only about 30 to 35 years after they were produced .

My brother gave me some orange tipped .30 carbine tracers in the late 1980s. I don’t know if those tracers were genuine military issue or had been re-assembled from components that had been sold as surplus. I also don’t know when they were produced and I forget the head stamp on the case.
But most of them also did trace and it was fun shooting them.

I saw a bunch of ricochets that I never heard.

 

[palmettomoon]

Likely still good. Shoot 'em. Where you can without starting a forest fire.

I have some WWII .45 ACP tracers that cracked open due to the element in the base of the bullets expanding.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

I tested 4 of these tracers tonight at dusk. It was after sunset, and pretty dark.
3 out of 4 traced, starting at about 50 yards and reaching to the berm at 100 yards.
One of the 1970s tracers did not light up that I could tell.
I can't comment on accuracy (it was too dark to see the sights clearly, and I just did 4 quick shots offhand, unsupported). But they all hit the target and all made nice round holes. No keyholing.