commgrp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (BACS Data Communications Group) (07/12/89)
From: BACS Data Communications Group <commgrp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> from reid@gold.bacs.indiana.edu (Frank Reid) Re: Tracers >>How do tracer bullets work? ... >>I've heard that the guns on WW2 aircraft >>would alternate tracers with other types, like armor-piercing... >Not uncommon. A lousy idea, as it turns out, because the ballistics are >not quite the same. At least one fighter commander improved his group's >gunnery considerably by ordering the tracers deleted. ... > Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology > uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu I read that WW2 fighter pilots stopped using tracers to avoid losing the element of surprise; better that the enemy doesn't know he's being shot at until too late. Gunsights and pilot skill were apparently good enough that they didn't need tracers for aiming. They replaced them with incendiaries, which make a bright flash when they hit (making it easy to count hits in gun-camera film). I believe that incendiaries are filled with white phosphorus which vaporizes and spontaneously ignites on impact. Modern ammo can incorporate armor- piercing, incendiary and tracer attributes all in a single round. .50-cal incendiaries are truly effective for starting fires; I've seen them ignite trees and junk cars at the semi-annual Knob Creek machinegun shoot in Kentucky. At last April's event, four .50s in a quad antiaircraft mount hosed-down the range at night, followed by a 7.62mm minigun firing 600 rounds of pure tracer. At the previous shoot, a full-auto 40mm antiaircraft gun fired 10 rounds of non- explosive tracer, demolishing a junk car and a concrete septic tank. After some of the shooting sessions, spectators are allowed to walk onto the range to admire the utter destruction of old cars, refrigerators, washing machines, vending machines, etc., some of which contain gasoline/dynamite bombs which explode when hit. I picked up several hardened-steel .50 cal armor-piercing cores, which make good center-punches. Their copper jackets strip away when they hit. The Knob Creek event features an awesome display of rare and exotic weapons, all privately owned. The sound of 200 MGs firing together is totally unbearable without ear protection. (That's not noise; that's the sound of Freedom!) I'll post details here or on rec.guns when I find out the date of the next one (Oct or Nov). -- Frank Reid W9MKV @ K9IU reid@gold.bacs.indiana.edu