12 guage tracer and 38 special tracer..........

[3006guns]

First time in this portion of the forum. I was reading some of the posts, then remembered something I have stashed..........somewhere.

While sorting out a massive quantity of older ammo (inheritance from a deceased friend) I came across a flat, brown box labelled in military fashion. According to the label, it contained "Shell, 12 ga. tracer".......or words to that effect. There were five rounds in the box and I never fired any.

Another box was labelled ".38 Special, tracer". If I recall, it was a 50 round box, and all cartridges had ordinary round service bullets but each had a red paint applied to the tips of the bullets.

Both boxes have the same "military" appearance, like boxes from the WWII era.

I have neither on hand right now, but I know they're out in my "stuff" somewhere. Can anyone tell me anything about them, particularly the shotgun ammo? I'm curious if it had a solid projectile (like a slug) or individual pellets and how in the world would you get them to trace?

[Pressman]

I can't add much other than some war stories. I had both .38 and .45ACP in my collection prior to joining the army. Both were obviously military issue. Upon arriving in RVN we were never issued rifles, but each crewman got a 1911A1 and we had 2 M3A1 submachineguns per vehicle. I found that loading the Grease Gun with every 4th round tracer gave better accuracy that trying to fire from the hip or using the little sights, such as they were. The slow rate of fire of the M3 allowed easy control and careful shot placement, even firing one handed.

I tried a few tracers in the 1911 and they were fun, but seemed to add nothing to better shot placement.

"one six delta" Co-A, 1st Bn, 69th Armor, 4th Inf, Div. 1969-1970

[3006guns]

Thanks for the reply and help Pressman. So they could be much later that WWII.......wish I had the things in front of me right now. I'm still really curious about those 12 ga. rounds, so hopefully someone will add more information.

It's a rainy, overcast and windy day here. Perhaps a good time to dig through my "stuff" and see what other wonders I can uncover.

[Outpost75]

The 12-ga. tracers were used in preliminary aerial gunnery training shooting skeet, to demonstrate and reinforce the principles of "leading" a crossing target. They also had a dual shotgun turret trainer which was mounted on a truck chassis and could be driven around a skeet field, so that gunner trainees could apply the same principles to operating the turret.

The .38 Special tracer rounds were issued to Navy and Marine Corps flight crews for signalling purposes during WW2 and Korea and the early days of the Vietnam war. The .38 Special tracer rounds were later replaced by colored star shells for the .38 revolver, their lower velocity and bright colors being less likely to be mistaken as groundfire.

By the late 1960s the .38 star shells were replaced in the Navy and Marine Corps by the Mk79 pen-flare launcher which used a threaded tube ignited by a shotshell primer which fit into the tear gas pen style launcher, having a "bandolier" of flares tethered to the launcher which fit into a pocket of the SV2 survival vest.

Attachment 262273

[too many things]

be carefull with the 12 ga as they can cause a brush fire. it dont burn out all the way to ground

[beagle]

Loads of .38 Special Tracer in RVN in 1967/67. Our pilots carried it supposedly for signaling. Next trip with the 101st, .45 Ball was scarce but they force issued Tracer to you in lieu of. I drew a can of 1,000 rounds for Familizaration for the officers as I was Range NCO. We had a M3 Grease gun in the Arms Room but only had one magazine. We had one kid that was hot to shoot it so I let him load the mag and I shot single shot. 55 gallon barrels at 200 yards. Pretty darned accurate. Then, he got his mag loaded and I got him by himself on the firing line and stood behind him. Told him to aim low. He did. Put the first burst in the ground about 10 feet out. Next bursts were farther down range. The remaining bursts were over the hill the barrels were sitting on. Had a heck of a good grass fire out of that magazine but Louie got to shoot his SMG. Tracers looked like softballs going down range. That old grease gun will never be the same I'll bet./beagle

[3006guns]

I forgot to mention in my original post, I'd never actually shoot the stuff......just keep it as a curiosity more than anything else!

[dragon813gt]

Still haven’t found a place to shoot any of these.



A friend dropped off a foot locker full of ammo and reloading components one day. The tracers were in there. So was an ammo box w/ load data on it. Apparently the previous owner had pulled some of the tracer bullets and loaded them over a few grains of Bullseye. Pulled them apart and the charge was correct, looked like Bullseye. But there was no way I was going to shoot them even if I had place to do so.

[Outpost75]

Cartridge collectors will pay $100 a box for that stuff in nice condition like you have there.

[dragon813gt]

Cartridge collectors will pay $100 a box for that stuff in nice condition like you have there.

Been told that many times and no one ever wants to pay. Had them listed on many forums and nothing. Worse is in person sales at local clubs during events. People act like offering me $20 to take a couple boxes off my hands is over paying. They’re just sitting in an ammo can waiting to be shot or sold.