Tracer shelf life

[.cheese.]

A recent mention of tracers followed by me packing my flare kit into my kayak/canoe for a little fun trip tomorrow morning got me thinking.

All of the 12 gauge flares and handheld flares I own have an expiration date printed on them. If I'm not mistaken, tracers use more or less the same compound as flares to produce light, with ignition produced by friction rather than the red elemental phosphorous on the tip of flares.

If flares have a shelf life, does tracer ammo have the same? I've never seen one printed.

 

[jrfoxx]

could be wrong, but I dont think they (flares, and thus tracers) so much have an "expiration date", so much as have a "we wont gurentee it'll work past" date. Unless they get contaminated,and are properly stored I'm pretty sure both will last a very long time. But, I cant say I know that for sure, so we'll see what more knowledgeable info comes up, as I'm curious too now.

 

[Solo Flyer]

Here is a beautiful(LOL)article on tracers and I can't understand a word of it.Where do they find these people?
Perhaps you gentleman can translate:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4301732.html

 

[TAB]

Flares must have an experation date on them by law... I beleave its 7 years after the date of manufactor, but don't hold me too that. Its been awhile.

 

[.cheese.]

that's no article. It's the patent for a tracer bullet reprinted.

Interesting thing I just found was that it has a desiccant in it.

 

[Solo Flyer]

that's no article. It's the patent for a tracer bullet reprinted.

Interesting thing I just found was that it has a desiccant in it.

Thats what I needed,a translation.
You're smarter than me.

 

[Arbor]

I bought some .308 tracers that were apparently made from taken apart military ammo or something? I think they say remanufactured from US parts. They don't work worth a damn

Sometimes I get a little thing from them, and sometimes it's a little better if it hits a hard surface and ricochets...then I can sometimes see it.

 

[Wes Janson]

As far as tracers go, I've heard of issues getting old (WWII and newer) ammunition to consistently light up and trace. I have heard of people recommending pricking the seal over the trace compound to help iginite the material.

 

[SDC]

It's mainly a question of how they've been stored; if ammo is stored in a water/moisture-tight container, and kept cool, it can last almost forever, but much military ammo isn't necessarily kept like that, so it's surplussed when it passes the point past which a certain percentage isn't up to specs. Tracer compound is hygroscopic (it pulls moisture out of the air), so, depending on where it's stored, it may go bad after only a few years, and have failures-to-ignite.