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Thread: Border Patrol’s Purple shell casings

  1. #1
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    Border Patrol’s Purple shell casings

    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. Name:  6820EB45-A6A0-4BEF-9079-E2FC45437147.jpg
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  2. #2
    Member TGS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by secondstoryguy View Post
    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.
    Last edited by TGS; 09-09-2018 at 09:32 AM.
    "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer

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    Quote Originally Posted by TGS View Post
    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.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by TGS View Post
    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

  5. #5
    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.

  6. #6
    Site Supporter OlongJohnson's Avatar
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    Yeah, I think I paid $0.17/rd for a case or two of WWB .40 this way. Totally worth it.
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  7. #7
    Member KhanRad's Avatar
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    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.
    "A man with an experience is not a slave to a man with an opinion."

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    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.

  9. #9
    Site Supporter Hambo's Avatar
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    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.
    "Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hambo View Post
    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.
    Last edited by HCM; 09-09-2018 at 01:44 PM.

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