Tracers/No tracers

[Cypher]

What are the advantages/disadvantages to useing tracers? using no tracers?

[Vudak]

Well, my aim is generally poor, and if I miss on my first burst, it's nice not to alert the enemy to my presence with a few hundred tracer rounds flying past his windshield.

On the other hand, my aim is generally poor, and if I miss connecting with an enemy on my buddy's six, it sucks not being able to alert the enemy to my presence with a few hundred tracer rounds flying past his windshield.

So, really, I'm darned if I do and darned if I don't, but I leave them off, because with aim as bad as mine, regardless of where the few hundred tracer rounds go flying, they clutter up the screen so much that I find they just make aiming even more difficult for me.

[Soulyss]

A lot of it will come down to personal preference.  Myself, I prefer to fly with them off.  I think turning the tracers off can actually help your aim.  I realized that I was aiming with the tracers, not the gunsight.  Turning them off forces my brain to learn to calculate the shots I would need to hit.  That being said I'm stil not a particularly good shot, but I get by.  

If you decide to give it a whirl you have to commit to it for a bit.  Your aim will get worse till you make the adjustment but then you should see it start to come back to at least where you were prior to switching.  Try it out for a few weeks and if you don't like you can always turn them back on.

[DamnedRen]

I flew for years with them off. I now fly with them on because I like to let the bad guy know I'm shooting at him .

[Delirium]

I agree with Soulyss completely... in the short term, you'll do much worse but the long term gain will definitely out weight that.

Only one bad thing to having tracers off, if you're trying to clear someone who is some distance away it can be difficult to scare the bandit behind him unless you start scoring some hits.

[Latrobe]

I use tracers. I like seeing my bullets fly across the sky into the enemy plane's tail. Using tracers help you aim better than without tracers, and if there's an enemy on a friendly six spreying a few tracers past him will make him break off. However, that is also the downside to using tracers. If you'r trying to sneak  up on an enemy six and miss your first burst he will know you'r behind him and your plan is ruined. Tracers also tell your enemy when you are shooting and where. So, when you shoot and tracers go by the enemy and ahead of him he knows you are in lead pursuit and can't sim, and he will now turn the other way and reverse you.

Using No Tracers has the exact opposite effect of using tracers. It's a little harder to aim, you can't tell the enemy on your friends six "Hey I'm gonna kill you, you better break off", you sneak up on an enemy six and miss he won't know your there, and the enemy can't tell when or where you are shooting.

[Lusche]

Originally posted by Delirium
I agree with Soulyss completely... in the short term, you'll do much worse but the long term gain will definitely out weight that.
.

Strangley it's exact the opposite for me.

If I turn tracers off, I'm fine for one to two days. After that, my aim starts to degrade, slowly at first, but after four or five days I can't hit anything anymore so I have to turn it back on.


So it's all a matter of personal preference I guess.

[Ghosth]

Tracers off here since the very first day we had the option.

As for scaring off bad guys on someone else's 6. I prefer to set them up for the kill rather than scare them away. Good wingman tatics, good drag skills, slip in till they are 200 in front and blow them to pieces.

If you do a lot of long range shooting with MG's tracers may help long term.

If your shooting up close with cannons, I think they just confuse the issue.

My opinion, and not worth a dime either.  

[Murdr]

Originally posted by Cypher
What are the advantages/disadvantages to useing tracers? using no tracers?

Advantages no tracers:  It forces you to look for site pictures that will hit the target rather than 'walk' your tracers to the target.  This makes your gunnery better.  Your target does not get a visual warning of tracers wizzing by that they are being shot at.  Targets cannot 'dodge' long range shots since they can't see them inbound.

[Snubby]

I prefer NOT using them for 3 reasons..

1: when you burn up on someone from low 6.. and blow the first shot.. they dont know it (unless they hear you)

2: you can see better where you are hitting on the target (important on bombers)

3: when you strafe a GV/flak its harder for him to tell where the rounds are coming from.  which is great against the SAM miss.. errr Ostwind.. where they can ping you with 1 lethal shot from an extended range..

[Patches1]

Tracers on...Tracers off...no difference....the sight picture is the same.

If you fly to the opponents' six and set him up for a kill...and get in close...
it matters not if tracers are on...or off...

What matters is sight picture, sight alignment (lead), and trigger control.

Whether you learn these three elements of shooting with tracers on, or off,
does not matter.

How you fly does matter...and how you set up your sight picture, how you align your sight, and how well you control your trigger... is the key...getting a kill only states who outflew whom, and it matters not if your tracers were on, or off.

[B@tfinkV]

Originally posted by Patches1


getting a kill only states who outflew whom, and it matters not if your tracers were on, or off.

very well said.


i change every now and then. In a p47 generaly i like tracers on,  in a spitfire mostly i dont. right now they have been off for a few months.

[Greywolf]

I've debated about the pros and cons about Tracers/No Tracers, and their are alot of good points in both.But if the planes and ballistics are Historically correct or real close (as I think they are)...What about tracers??? Did WWII pilots have the option to not load Tracers in their Ammo Loadout?? I am not a expert, but I really don't think so. Did they really relied on their sights?Or did the Tracers perform as their AIM????Please correct  me if I'm wrong...need  a WWII Fighter Pilot/Mechanic Veteran as the best proof.(I would think).......................

[Snubby]

from what Ive seen on the history channel from guncam footage and whatnot...  almost all of them had tracers, but nowhere NEAR the amount of them that AH does..

in most WW2 footage it looks like maybe a a few tracers every second..  in AH its a massive barrage of them.. like every other round (I know its not but it seems like it)

I wish you could turn on/off tracers PER GUN, or per pair..  I might start using them again, but I would only use them on 1 gun (point convergence anyway).. so they wouldn't obscure what im shooting at like they do now (part of why I no longer use them)

heres some gun cam footage from various P47s.. some of the time it looks like they are using very few tracers, other times more, and other times none at all..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=75277905547951258

[Delirium]

In reality, tracers have a different weight than regular AP/API rounds and didn't follow the same arc of fire. Which means you were aiming with only the tracers rounds, while the heavier hitting rounds were missing completely because of the different ballistics.

I know of one Fighter Group that removed all the tracer rounds from their airplanes, as they said the results were 'dramatic' and their kill numbers improved.

Unfortunately, in AH tracers have the same flight path as the rest of the rounds which makes many of the historical arguments/comparisons meaningless.