A bullet or shell whose course is made visible in flight by a trail of flames or smoke, used to assist in aiming.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Did you have any experiences with tracers? Send your notes in to the webmaster for posting. powellcentaur@gmail.com
Eastes: AK47s had tracers. I don't remember them as shooting full tracer, more like 4 to 1 or 5 to 1 (one tracer round for every 4 or 5)
I remember 51 tracers as having an orange/red color rather than green, but that could be after a lot of years and faded memory. We all probably remember how big they looked coming at you; the standard saying was "they look like basketballs coming at you".
One night coming out of the Corral, I was low along the perimeter when a Duster (twin 40mm) fired some rounds and almost shot us down. Now, those were some BIG tracers! Really scary!
One time, a VC was caught running along a trail and was spotted by one of my gunners or crewchiefs. He fired his M60 with full tracer at the guy, and on the second shot, it jammed. The first round hit right by him, and the second round got him. Two shots, one bad guy down.
Did you ever shoot your 45 out of the aircraft with tracer rounds? A lesson in trajectory, for sure.