Yellow and blue tape on mags, meaning?

[LUTNIT]

I've seen in several movies where there is yellow or blue tape wrapped around the bottom part of a mag, mostly on AK's but also on armalites and MP5's. Since starting airsoft I've been seeing a lot more videos of real world conflicts and seen the same or similar things on real soldiers guns (no, not the guy that used painters tape to hold his mag spring in vain :lol: ) but soldiers in actual armed forces who do this. I've also seen several airsofters do this at games I've been to in the Montreal area.

Just wondering if there is a specific meaning to the different coloured tape (different kinds or rounds/loads?) or whether its just a common thing people do to mark which mags are theirs for some reason (I can see it making sense in airsoft.)

Yes, I did search and found nothing.

[R.A.T.M._JLD]

Could be for better grip or different type of ammo like one being hollow point and the other being armor pressing.

[Flabeo]

Some peopel put tape on the bottom of there mags to hold a pull string in place could it be that?

[CalvinTat]

It would make sense to paint the top 1/8th of a mag a bright colour incase you drop it in the field, one person does do this in my area. The paint is hidden when inserted into the mag well, so there isn't any issue with bright colours.

Flabeo: from Lutnit's description, it doesn't seemed like they are used as home-made MagPuls.

It does however make sense that it would be used to mark different loads. Since tape is easily removed it would be illogical to mark your property with.

[Lakonian]

Since tape is easily removed it would be illogical to mark your property with RAINBOW SALAD!!!!!

Read that wrong. LOL. It sure was funny...until I realised it was yer siggy.

Eh, I believe it IS to mark different loads. I've seen some AK mags with blue tape, loaded with AP rounds... yellow could be tracer? lol, makes sense ^^;

[Captain Tenneal]

I've heard that simply that russian soldiers are only issued blue tape, therefore that's why they're coloured.

Albeit; it could just be like Die Hard 2

I'd do that to my mags to distinguish between .2 and .25's, or highs and lows etc. Just have to do it in something subdued, possibly tan/od/black.

[Luckyorwhat]

One guy was describing how you could tell competent 3rd world fighters from the idiots, things like if they have their rear sight on their AK all the way up (because that means farther distance, which means more power, and more power is good, right?), whether their are any people with eye glasses, how they carried their loads, and whether they taped up the bottoms of their old magazines, and some other aspects I don't remember. Apparantly old AK mags can pop right open if you drop them, or bump them (like when going prone), and after that happens to you or someone you know you'll tape it up asap.

A Brit did say in another subject, though, that his section put sandpaper on their magazines, to distinguish them by feel (I think it was for magazines that were all tracer, to point stuff out to the others).

[Identity]

I use it to distinguish what mag it is.
blue = low cap, red = high cap.
And it can also be used to differ the bb weights.

[CDN_Stalker]

I've seen guys (like SWAT and anti-terrorist units) with blue or yellow tape on their MP5s and M4s, I believe either to signify training weapons and/or training mags, such as this MP5 pic:



Could also be used to signify the type of ammo as mentioned above, found this pic that has a single mag with blue tape on it that separates it from other mags (could be FMJ, JHP, or even safety rounds (penetrates flesh but breaks up into powder on contact with a hard surface....... to prevent ricochettes and wall penetraion for bystander safety).



And for putting tape on the bottom of the AK mags to keep the springs in, someone should tell this guy about that trick, considering he put the tape on the wrong part of the mag:

[LUTNIT]

Telling mags apart is the most likely reason I could think of, was just wondering if there was any set colours for different types as it seemed every time I saw it it was either yellow or blue so thought it might be standardized, guess not.

Yellow tape on my hicaps it is! And with how often I will be using them its probably gonna be more useful for the "crap, forgot to pack and I leave for the game in 5min!" type of deal, not in the field.

In the Military if you see blue on a weapon or mag it means its for training, so it'll fire non-lethal rounds like simmunition, etc.

[ATREYU]

Mags with yellow tape or paint on them are used by persons acting in the capacity of armed escorts - at least in the CF (reference B-GL-304-002/PT-Z05, Chapter 1, Section 1, Paragraph 11).

Magazines containing live ammunition will have thier baseplate coloured bright yellow, using permanent non washable paint, or in an emergency, good quality yellow tape. This marking also cannot be concealed in any way.

[Primus]

If you check out the last page of the magpul manual found here: http://www.magpul.com/03_tech.html you can see what color coresponds to the type of ammo, don't know how "universal" those standards are though.

CDN_Stalker: That top photo and the middle one are H&K promotional photos, and in them the tape lets you know that the guns are not loaded and are only for show. You can always tell H&K promotional photos from real SWAT operater photos a number of ways. I think I picked this up from www.hkpro.com. The two I remember are the yellow tape on mags and grips, and that the operators wear Oakley goggles.

[shadow1911]

yellow training blue blanks red high explosive none is reg ap am the good stuff

the tape is used to identify ammo types in movie sets they use blue tape on a lot of the blank firing guns yellow on the grip like those mp5s up there those are actually guns similar to your aeg they cant fire regular ammo those mp5s but they can fire training ammo if the tape on the grip is blue is cemented (i believe) and if the tape is red i have no idea but ammo means yellow training red deadly

all in all blue means harmless yellow means non lethal projectile red means gun damaging and none means normal ammo
(i thin k i might use tape to mark out my cap numbers on mags and grams of ammo