9mm Tracers

Hornady Vectors, bright 124 grain (about ounces or 8 grams) tracer bullets with a muzzle velocity of 1000 feet per second/ 305 metres per second. They were discontinued about 20 years ago (as of 2020). Vectors consist of a thin rod of magnesium, weighing only a grain or two, drilled into the base of the full-metal-jacket bullet. Magnesium burns brightly and quickly, and the bullets are visible immediately after leaving the muzzle. They provide a bright trace for about 0.5 to seconds and an illuminated flight of 150-200 yards (the bullets themselves can travel well over a mile if carelessly shot into the sky).Military tracer ammunition has a much larger proportion of pyrotechnic material (including phosphorous) that makes up a significant percentage of the bullet’s weight, burns much hotter and longer, and often doesn’t fully illuminate until the bullet is dozens of yards down range. Military small-arms tracer ammunition burns for several seconds to a thousand yards, give or take, and can present a significant fire hazard. It had rained- the grass was wet. Even if it hadn’t rained, these bullets are safe (from a fire danger standpoint) compared to military tracers. Still, ALWAYS avoid shooting even “safe“ tracer ammunition into dry vegetation. The berm is about 130 yards/120 metres from the muzzle. A 9mm bullet drops about 5“/12cm over the distance between the muzzle and the berm which optically is not much and gives the impression of a flat, laser-like trajectory over the distance that the bullet flies. The pistol is a Beretta 92FS. This clip was filmed with an iPhone 6 at a slow-motion 240 frames per second (about one-tenth the speed of reality). The location is Livingston, Montana, USA. The synchronization between sound and video is not quite right- there is not THAT much of a delay between when the bullet leaves the muzzle and the sound hits the iPhone maybe three feet away. There is another slow-motion tracer video on this channel where the sound is heard BEFORE the pistol visibly fires- and that was shot recently with a “newer, better“ iPhone 11: There are a couple of other videos on this channel, shot from the same location with the same pistol and ammunition, at normal speed (not in slow motion): To answer a couple of FAQs: the “person“ on the ridgeline is a fencepost, and the target is not the home of a Hobbit or Telletubby (we do know you are joking): it is a pile of soft dirt at a small, home shooting range to catch bullets and reduce the chance of a ricochet.