Tracers work both ways... true or false?

[Scarface]

Green Tracers

Dave,

Thank you for your kindness. Do you also remember the green tracers?

As an aside, on my first missions, we combined my area orientation with a recon insert. The team got immediate contact and as we started fire support, I commented to the HAC that all the birds coming up from the jungle were amazing. He commented on my parentage and probability of continued life and pointed out that the "birds" I thought were so remarkable were tracers. Yes, you can see them coming. These were most .30 cal at the foot of Elephant Valley near DaNang.

Semper Fi and thank you for your service,

Scarface

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Well it's pretty danged difficult to film them from the other side. You're not going to see them *as well*, since the incendiary portion is at the rear of the round, but I don't doubt that you CAN see them from the front.

 

[dave from mesa]

Do you also remember the green tracers?

Scarface
Actually those are the kind that were coming at us. Other than during basic, where they shot way over our heard, never had red tracers fired in my direction.

 

[chuckusaret]

I only saw them as they passed by my chopper and did not reveal the shooters exact position, just the general area. Returning by chopper to Hue from DaNang just north of the Hi Van pass we would always draw green tracer fire that appeared to be larger than basket balls. You talk about a pucker factor.

 

[Jubjub]

In WWII, we developed an extra bright tracer designed to be more visible from the front, the Cartridge, Caliber .50, Tracer, Headlight, M21. It was believed that there was a deterrent effect on attacking fighters when this was fired from bomber defensive guns. It also made it easier for other planes in the formation to see where defensive fire was going, enabling them to spot fighters sooner.

 

[rondog]

Yeah, that video was from the Cheyenne Wells, CO, machine gun shoot last spring (coming up again soon!). There's miles of wide-open-nothingness in the background, I hear the owner of the range property owns all the pasture land from there to the Kansas border. It's a charity event for the Cheyenne Wells volunteer fire department, and they had several trucks there. Put out several grass fires too. A great time, I hope to go this year too.

And you can quote all the stats you want, all I know is when somebody fired off an M2, those tracers sure seemed to go a LOT faster than most of the others.

Didn't take very far for some of them to light off either, from what I could see. This is #7 of a series I cut from one of my videos, they all lit up within a foot or two.

 

[jbkebert]

You can see them almost to clear. When loading wounded taking of supplies at night. The birds would come in black. You can see them plain as day through night vision especialy using IR. Even though you can see enemy fire you dont dare shoot back until the birds are off the ground. To much chance of being zeroed in on by muzzle flash and tracers. Blackhawks are hard to see in a field at night. The sounds of the motor and blades echoes. You can hear it but its very hard with out nightvision to pinpoint.

 

[d2wing]

Yup! they do.

 

[Tom S.]

Yes, which is why I don't use laser sights.

 

[Floppy_D]

Oh damn...I just had a thought....I would love to see a tracer round made for the MK-19.

We overheated and split a Mk19 barrel without tracers, no need to add them.