Border Patrol’s Purple shell casings

[secondstoryguy]

I was at an LEO/Mil only 2-gun match the other day and saw some purple shell casings. I picked one up and made the comment that someone was really moto about marking their brass so no one else takes it. I later found out that the Border Patrol has their practice ammo casings dyed purple so that their guys can tell the difference between practice and duty ammo. I never thought it was hard to look at the bullet and pick the one with the funny looking tip LOL. Gotta love the government. 30036

[TGS]

Gotta love the government.

I don't see how it's anything about government stupidity.

It's actually a really good idea. Humans are humans, and most LEOs aren't gun enthusiasts. I got openly offensive with people in the last firearms class I took at work because they were too inept to be able to tell FMJ from frang.

Similarly, I don't know how many times I've seen people have our old duty ammo (Hydrashok) mixed with our current duty ammo (Gold Dot G2) in spare "go-bag" mags (duty mags get shot up during qual every 4 months). The worst I saw was very recently, where an agent had filled their 3 duty mags with FMJ.

DHS's purple case ammunition marking is a smart, useful solution to mitigate the fact that some people are just fucking idiots. Doubly smart when you have duty ammo rejects being repurposed as practice ammo.

[secondstoryguy]

I don't see how it's anything about government stupidity.

It's actually a really good idea. Humans are humans, and most LEOs aren't gun enthusiasts. I got openly offensive with people in the last firearms class I took at work because they were too inept to be able to tell FMJ from frang.

Similarly, I don't know how many times I've seen people have our old duty ammo (Hydrashok) mixed with our current duty ammo (Gold Dot G2) in spare "go-bag" mags (duty mags get shot up during qual every 4 months). The worst I saw was very recently, where an agent had filled their 3 duty mags with FMJ.

DHS's purple case ammunition marking is a smart, useful solution to mitigate the fact that some people are just fucking idiots. Doubly smart when you have duty ammo rejects being repurposed as practice ammo.

Good points.

[Artemas2]

I don't see how it's anything about government stupidity.

It's actually a really good idea. Humans are humans, and most LEOs aren't gun enthusiasts. I got openly offensive with people in the last firearms class I took at work because they were too inept to be able to tell FMJ from frang.

Similarly, I don't know how many times I've seen people have our old duty ammo (Hydrashok) mixed with our current duty ammo (Gold Dot G2) in spare "go-bag" mags (duty mags get shot up during qual every 4 months). The worst I saw was very recently, where an agent had filled their 3 duty mags with FMJ.

DHS's purple case ammunition marking is a smart, useful solution to mitigate the fact that some people are just fucking idiots. Doubly smart when you have duty ammo rejects being repurposed as practice ammo.

I also approve of this practice, not every officer is gun savvy. After turkey/duck seasons I have heard of at-least one officer have a PO shotgun topped off with birdshot in a patrol car for 6 months until he qualified with it

[beenalongtime]

I bought a decent amount of .40 this way, when it was being sold off through various companies. Same ammo as WWB, just with the purple dye. Easy to spot to grab extra range boxes, and I figure when your dealing with a bunch of people at the range, something to make your life easier and safer, doesn't hurt.

[OlongJohnson]

Yeah, I think I paid $0.17/rd for a case or two of WWB .40 this way. Totally worth it.

[KhanRad]

LE agencies always cater to the weakest links in their ranks. Those weak links likely have difficulty in immediately recognizing duty ammo from training ammo, and why our agency qualifications are so easy.

[HCM]

Ive had no problems with this ammo but some of it is factory seconds or lower QC than first quality Gov contract ammo. The purple helps ensure it is not used for duty use. The purple 5.56 is partivularly accurate.

DHS has over 75k gun toters if you include the Coast Guard. They aren’t all gonna be steely eyed gunfighters.

Having personally seen people load 9mm in 40 cal pistols and 40 in 9mm magazines despite all 9mm being nickel cased and al 40 being brass the purple practice ammo is a good idea.

Midway USA among others have sold over runs of this ammo commercially.

[Hambo]

If you make it idiot proof, someone will invent a better idiot. If you're too stupid to be able to discern one bullet type from another, purple dye won't guarantee success. You don't have to be a steely eyed gunfight, you just have to be able to feed yourself and not get run over crossing the street.

[HCM]

If you make it idiot proof, someone will invent a better idiot. If you're too stupid to be able to discern one bullet type from another, purple dye won't guarantee success. You don't have to be a steely eyed gunfight, you just have to be able to feed yourself and not get run over crossing the street.

Nothing is “fool proof” but a visual indicator for practice vs duty ammo is not a bad idea if the cost is negligible.

We had a bad batch of Win Ranger 147 JHP with dud primers a while back which then became “ training / practice “ only ammo.

We managed to burn though it without incident but there were people carrying it when they should not have been.

That purple 5.56 has an OTM type hollow point and is more accurate than out SP type duty ammo. I grab the purple 5.56 when I can.

[LSP552]

I “might” have seen a couple of LSP shotgun quals that has some birdshot mixed in with the buckshot. I’d guess rabbit hunting on night shift.........

[Trooper224]

You gotta have fashion forward ammo to match all those multicolored plastic guns out there. Tre sheik.

[John Hearne]

We've shot a lot of the FBI contract ammo over the years. At first, the only markings on the box were the part number of the load. For the last couple of years, all the cases are marked "Practice" or "Duty."

[Nephrology]

I have the better part of a case of this stuff. 180gr .40. One of these rounds had a bulged case and locked up my Glock 35 solid. Had to hit the rear of the slide with a torque wrench to put it into battery.

[willie]

Once I saw an 870 with some of the shells loaded backward in the mag tube. Picket shotgun.

[BehindBlueI's]

Had to hit the rear of the slide with a torque wrench to put it into battery.

...of all the tools to use to whack something, a torque wrench?:confused:

[Nephrology]

...of all the tools to use to whack something, a torque wrench?:confused:

Heaviest hand tool I had in my car at the time. I tried kicking the back of the slide with no luck. Didn't especially want to bring the gun home from the range in that condition.

[olstyn]

...of all the tools to use to whack something, a torque wrench?:confused:

No kidding. No way would I whack anything with either of my torque wrenches. They were both expensive (or at least, expensive in my view), so I'm not going to use them as hammers.

Also, why force the out of spec round into battery vs just ejecting it and moving on?

[Nephrology]

No kidding. No way would I whack anything with either of my torque wrenches. They were both expensive (or at least, expensive in my view), so I'm not going to use them as hammers.

Also, why force the out of spec round into battery vs just ejecting it and moving on?

Used the handle. It's fine.

The slide was locked up solid - would not move forwards or backwards - about ~3mm out of battery. Knocking it into battery was basically my only option.

Cartridge ignited and ejected just fine after.

[jnc36rcpd]

Mesmerizing as I am while explaining the next course of fire or pontificating upon the tactics and techniques needed for the next drill while people load magazines, I doubt purple ammunition would be enough to ensure they are loading training ammunition. Even if not focused on the wit and wisdom of soon to be retired SGT jnc, people get distracted when stuffing mags on the range. Given minimal cost, I have no issue with it.

[einherjarvalk]

That purple 5.56 has an OTM type hollow point and is more accurate than out SP type duty ammo. I grab the purple 5.56 when I can.

I had no idea the purple .223 was that quality. I bought two boxes just to go with my purple Lancer mags; guess I'll be sitting on those forever.

[Tokarev]

I had no idea the purple .223 was that quality. I bought two boxes just to go with my purple Lancer mags; guess I'll be sitting on those forever.

We've shot the purple 223 on steel out of 475 yards with pretty surprising results. I certainly wouldn't call it "match ammo" but for training ammo it is probably better than it needs to be.

With that said, it does seem to be particularly dirty ammo.

[TGS]

We've shot the purple 223 on steel out of 475 yards with pretty surprising results. I certainly wouldn't call it "match ammo" but for training ammo it is probably better than it needs to be.

With that said, it does seem to be particularly dirty ammo.

Powder, or is it something to do with the dye (burns up in the chamber?)

[Tokarev]

Powder, or is it something to do with the dye (burns up in the chamber?)

Although the purple will come off with a little handling, the fouling seems to be pretty much powder based.

[OlongJohnson]

I have the better part of a case of this stuff. 180gr .40. One of these rounds had a bulged case and locked up my Glock 35 solid. Had to hit the rear of the slide with a torque wrench to put it into battery.

WWB in any other color still smells as sweet.

I learned something in this thread about the 9/40 cases. I’ve also bought a bunch of HST overruns, and just assumed the brass cases were cost cutting.

[nate89]

I saw these at the last USPSA match I shot. I was thinking the same thing, that someone had colored their brass so they could ID it after the match was over. Someone told me it was .gov practice ammo.

[MistWolf]

Used the handle...

This is why we don't let doctors have tools. Let me have the wrench, doc.
Here, I'll trade you a nice rubber hammer for it :cool:
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/8d/9b/da/8d9bdad9b67934e676eb963c0be363e4--midwifery-doctor.jpg

[Tokarev]

I have the better part of a case of this stuff. 180gr .40. One of these rounds had a bulged case and locked up my Glock 35 solid. Had to hit the rear of the slide with a torque wrench to put it into battery.I haven't experienced it personally but there have been reports of split cases with the purple 40 in the P2000. Most times the case extracts and ejects fine but every once in awhile the split case will stick in the chamber. Several theories have been floated. I believe the most likely is that the zinc coating and the staining process makes the base material somewhat brittle.

Not ideal but also not necessarily a deal breaker since this is meant to be inexpensive range ammo and not premier duty stuff.

Also, while it may have happened, I haven't seen any splits or cracks with the 223 stuff.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

[MDFA]

No experience with the Purple ammo, but I can say that appearance is not a guarantee.

I was the head firearms instructor at my last agency. Years ago one of our officers passed away from natural causes. (Great Guy still miss him) but not a gun guy...

When I inspected his duty weapon and magazines, one of the magazines had Hydra Shok, Black Talon, and Blazer Aluminum Training ammo mixed in it.

We shot our duty ammo yearly and replaced it. The Hydra Shok hadn't been issued for a couple years, the Black Talon was current issue for duty and the Blazer was current for training. So there were different colors of bullet as well as different case colors and type of metal as well as hollowpoint vs. FMJ.

So much for appearance....

[deputyG23]

Weapon and ammo inspections are done monthly by our Sergeants assisted by a firearms instructor if one is available.
I have lost count, over three decades, of the number of duty magazines containing any number of practice FMJ rounds.
We even had one transplanted LE part time retiree bailiff “dutch load” his two spare .40 mags with alternating Ranger T service rounds and FMJ practice ammo. He stated that that “was the way we did it at home”. That was swiftly corrected and he left our Office soon thereafter.

[HCM]

Weapon and ammo inspections are done monthly by our Sergeants assisted by a firearms instructor if one is available.
I have lost count, over three decades, of the number of duty magazines containing any number of practice FMJ rounds.
We even had one transplanted LE part time retiree bailiff “dutch load” his two spare .40 mags with alternating Ranger T service rounds and FMJ practice ammo. He stated that that “was the way we did it at home”. That was swiftly corrected and he left our Office soon thereafter.

Y'all have some time on your hands. We can barely do yearly weapons inspections.

Candy caning ammo in magazines is old school derp.

[deputyG23]

Y'all have some time on your hands. We can barely do yearly weapons inspections.

Candy caning ammo in magazines is old school derp.It is a lot easier to do them when 90% of your sworn staff work in courts/jails and it can be done during briefing. Don't get me started on the current lack of yearly armorer's inspections. This is being rectified, albeit slowly, as we speak. We have had some positive changes in our Command Staff that have finally recognized our many shortcomings and things are slowly on the mend, thank God.