45 ACP Tracer ammo.
I have some 45 ACP tracer (red tip) ammo that has an X or cross on the bullet tip. Wondering what it means. The head stamp is F A 42 and a star. Appreciate any help. leesshop
0
-
it is there to ID in low light/dark conditions with your fingers,,i have a couple cans of the stuff 0 -
Hi,
I think you have an interesting cartridge.
Below is a photo of the .45 Tracer M1. The M26 came along later after 1945.
What you have exactly is a Frankford Arsenal .45 Tracer M1 made in 1942.
This cartridge was made by two entities: Frankford Arsenal and Remington Arms Company on contract to the military.
The cross on the top of the cartridge was only present on the Frankford Arsenal ammunition and its official purpose is unknown, but experts believe it was probably used for in-house identification of the bullet.
These cartridges are loaded to a slightly higher velocity than regular military ball .45 ammunition averaging 925 fps. The length of the trace was approximately 200 yards.
The star * is an interesting feature of your cartridge. The tracer composition in the bullet had a tendency to swell under certain climatic conditions and would split the brass case. In order to prevent the case from cracking, the brass for these cases was made more elastic achieved by a "high annealing" process used at Frankford Arsenal. To identify the cartridges which were "highly annealed" they were marked with a single star * on the headstamp.
The first batch of these cartridges was FA 37 accepted on December 1, 1941. These cartridges did not work well in the Thompson submachine gun and the Army discontinued their use in this weapon.
Hope this helps.
Heavyiron0 -
Thanks very much for the detailed info. I appreciate the help. 0 -
I don't know how applicable this is to your question? Years ago I got my hands on some of the W W II era .45 Tracers. Took them out to the desert, so their wouldn't be any fire danger. Most seemed to be inert, i.e. the tracer element didn't function, although the ammo was fired through a Colt. As this was many years ago, and the ammo is at least 65 years old now. There would be a question in my mind, how many would actually work? 0 -
That tracer round was known as the M26 round. Bob 0 -
I scrounged up a box of Winchester tracers, (red trace) during my second trip to "Nam. they worked good in my greese gun, tracing out to probably 200 yds. had to use 'em sparingly as only had 1 box, so just used one for the first round, and one for the last round. don't remember looking at the date, but the stuff looked to be new, in '68 0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
6 comments