Whats the deal with tracer ammo?
 

Why is the only colors of tracer ammo available in .20 red, and green? I see purple and blue but its all in .12. Is it ok to run .12's in most guns? I always see minimum weight warnings at .20

BBBastard has .25 tracers, Madbull also has some heavier weight tracers (.25 as well, IIRC).

But are the heavier weight bb's only available in red or green? I'm looking for some blue or purple .20 or higher

From what I've been told, the materials needed to make the tracer bb's are not heavy enough to effectively make a heavier weight bb.

In the UK our tracer rounds are white, with a sort of glow in the dark tinge of green to them. Not what you were looking for I know, just thought I'd let you know :)

Also, you need to consider the color versus visibility. Green is the color most visible to the human eye (take a green and red laser at the same mW value for example).

Towards the ends of the visible spectrum, luminescence will suck. Blue and purple tracers will frankly suck.

And .12s will give you herpes.

I used tracers alot last season, had both red and green, and the green ones were much brighter, not as realistic cause real tracers are reddish in color. But you do have to remember, tracers work both ways, and right now I'm the only one in our group that plays that has them.

I asssume they are only of any value in a night gaime? or do they also help in the day?

Indoors they work ok, especially in dank low light environments. Middle of the day outside would be a very subtle effect. The quality of the tracer unit and the BBs is a huge consideration though, low end silencer-tracer units are just awful. I have a TM unit with quality ammo, makes a world of difference.

BBbasterd came out and said that different colors cost different amounts. glow int he dark blue etc costs a fair bit more to make

i dont see them being much use durring the day, i have seen them in action (receving end) at night and i have to say they are very impressive they do work both ways i would recomend the green, they are easy to see, and they are redily avalible from a few different manufacturers

I frequently use Mad Bull green tracer BBs during night games. I know red tracers are also available, but they're not as bright. If I'm not mistaken, those are the only two colours which can be activated with normal white light. Any other tracer BBs require an ultraviolet light source to activate them.

I use a Tokyo Marui tracer unit on the end of my rifle barrel. For those times I want to take a shot and not be detected, it's a simple matter to just turn off the tracer unit so the BBs don't glow. When I do fire off a burst of tracers in the middle of a night game, the result is spectacular!

You might get some use out of them at dusk, but unless it's dark, you won't see the tracers.

All depends on who's making them. NATO ammo is usually red, but Warsaw Pact/Eastern Bloc/whatever tracers are usually green.

I've never fired non nato made tracers, and was never told at anytime during my 12 years of service that any other color tracer was out there, learned something new.