Which color indicates a dummy round?

• A. No color
• B. Blue stripe
• C. Full black
• D. Black tip

Answer: (C)

Color coding helps you tell at a glance what kind of round you’re looking at. A dummy round is inert and used for practice, so it’s marked with a clear, unmistakable appearance. Painting the cartridge body solid black provides a strong, easily recognizable cue that this round has no powder or primer and isn’t live. The other options don’t offer as reliable a universal signal in many settings: a blue stripe can be used for trained or specific ranges but isn’t as universally recognized as inert; a black tip is commonly associated with armor‑piercing or tracer rounds rather than dummies; no color doesn’t give you a quick visual indicator. So the full black marking is the best way to indicate a dummy round.