Tracers and bad bores

[John Kepler]

Green tracers use barium chlorate rather than strontium chlorate as an oxidizer....a favorite chemistry of the old Com-bloc that gives you a green emission!

"Flame emission" was a favorite "Mr. Wizard" demonstration every Saturday morning (though it lost something in the translation to B&W TV!)....it's very basic chemistry that most folks are exposed to multiple times in their lives....every 4th of July not the least! Strontium and it's "Brilliant Red" is always used as a "flame test" demonstrator....my wife does it regularly with 4th and 5th Graders! I apologize for assuming that level of knowledge as part of a regular adult "skill-set"!

FWIW, the space immediately behind a bullet doesn't have a lot "O2" in it, as it's quite a hard vacuum....that's why for a tracer to burn, it has to have an independent oxidizer!

As for shooting them at all....my Dad the WW II aerial gunner agreed with you, and didn't belt tracers if he could get away with it, ignored them if he couldn't....considered them less than useless as their ballistics didn't match the rest of the ammo in the string.