Tracers

[Golfer]

30 caliber ball next to a 30 caliber tracer on the left.  5.56mm ball next to a 5.56mm tracer on the right.  The 5.56 aren't exactly representative since the ball is a 55gr projectile and the tracer a 62gr but it's close enough to make the point that there are some differences between the two.





Looking from the rear.  You can see the lead core of the ball rounds and see the thin jacket on the back that would contain the tracer material.  Different materials yield different colors.



I'm not brave enough to cut them open with anything so use your imagination for the rest

[GNucks]

I suppose I was mistaken seeing as they're not exactly the same. I've used tracers but I've never looked at the bullets outside of their casings. As far as I can tell though they look like they should fly through the air almost exactly same at normal ranges.

[Golfer]

Well they definitely fly different.  Keeping the same point of aim the point of impact for a comparable weight tracer and a comparable weight ball round will be different.  How you measure that difference and what you consider significant will determine just how much the difference matters.  For a groundhog at 300 yards using a varmint rifle, it matters.  For an airplane at 300 yards using a machine gun, it doesn't.

[muzik]

question: with tracers off should your guns hit harder?
seems like the tracers would be replaced with live rounds making your guns more effective.

In RL Yes! I dont know if it is modeled in AH though. Beyond 200 yards, the tracer round burns off part of its mass effecting its trajectory and impact strength.

[Ardy123]

In RL Yes! I dont know if it is modeled in AH though. Beyond 200 yards, the tracer round burns off part of its mass effecting its trajectory and impact strength.

Look at any old gun cam videos, rather rapidly the tracers start to tumble all over the place. In RL, this was better than nothing but also in RL, the real bullets don't fly perfectly and often tumble all over too...

[GNucks]

Really, well I learned something today. I always just assumed they were regular rounds all d donut led up.

I said d a z z l e d! Come on! 

[muzik]

NM

self imposed- see rule #4

[BERN1]

thank you for clearing up the facts behind tracers

[grizz441]

Firing without tracers is leet.  Chicks dig it.

[GNucks]

Firing without tracers is leet.  Chicks dig it.

You can't really pick up chicks in a K4 though 

[grizz441]

U can in a K Money though.

[Oldman731]

In Real Life, were there pilots who chose to loadout without tracers?  Were they even allowed to make that choice?

Can't give you a comprehensive answer on this, but I do know that at least several 8th AF squadrons were going no-tracer by the end of the war.  All of the accounts I've read reported that their kill rate improved dramatically.  I imagine there were various reasons for this, not least that tracers don't have the same trajectory as the non-tracer ammo and, as others have pointed out here, tracers over your canopy provide an unmistakeable warning that you're a target.

In AvA, where we've been flying no-icons for a bit more than a year, it seems to me that virtually everyone has turned tracers off.

- oldman

[thndregg]

I've never fought with tracers off. My way of improving my accuracy is to use aircraft with limited ammo, such as my favorite Yak 9's. You don't have many rounds on you, so you have to be conservative and fire when & where it counts. If you can do that, imagine what you can do in an aircraft with a lot more ammo.

[321BAR]

The way i learned to get good gunnery skills... SHOOT LESS. CONSERVE AMMO. i ignore my tracer rounds. at a certain point i realized tracers meant nothing to me and my guns other than giving me a somewhat accurate path. with or without tracers, learn to shoot where the bullets go and learn to fire less

[dedalos]

aside from the fact that you used some poor examples about learning to shoot...the feedback you get in ah is seeing the hit sprites on the target without the tracers distracting you..

WOW, the new version is showing hit sprites when you miss now?  WTG HT