Puffy Ack without the Puff?

[WOZ30BAT]

BoyofWar popped me with the 5 inch gun evidently. I was close to the deck; trying to stay under 3k to avoid puffy ack. The fleet was still a ways off the coast as I could see other friendlies higher than me but no puffy ack was firing. We were all engaged mostly in an on the deck furball and I was trailing a F4F through a turn & about to fire when I was immediately sent to the tower. No puffy ack, no gunfire; just an explosion heard as entering tower. I don't think it was a 40mm as I saw no tracers at any time & I was sure the CV was still far enough away from me as such I was not worried about tracer ack. I guess I'm asking can the 5 inch gun not have puffy ack or is that a total different gun from the "puffy ack" gun. And does it fire under 3k? I'm pretty sure I was under 3k but who knows I was in a fight but I do know the puffy clouds were not around & there were no tracer round ack visible either.      {Sidious}

[SPKmes]

yes 5 inch is user directed and can fire to sea level.

[GNucks]

I'm pretty sure you can set the 5" to land mode while still firing AA. Click on a furball on the map and just hold the trigger down 'till you get something. No killshooting field guns is stupid, imo.

EDIT: But that wasn't your question. If he was luck I'm sure he got an instant kill on your pilot, explaining why you never saw anything and instantly went to tower.

[AAJagerX]

Sounds like he scored a direct hit and killed your pilot.