[Milsurplus] Tracers.

[lbfulton at windstream.net]

I was a .50 cal. gunner on Marine CH-46 helicopters in Vietnam.  I believe the idea that the ballistics of a tracer round are different than a ball round are in error.  When we first trained on the .50's we would circle a wood pallet about a 1/2 mile from the beach on the South China Sea that had flourescent markers strapped to it. About 1500 ft. altitude. You could see the hits very well. The tracers went right in with the rest of the rounds. No veering at all.  The ammo was a repeated 5 round string and I don't know why I remember this after all these years.  2 ball rounds, (full metal jacket lead slug), 1 armor piercing, 1 HE (high explosive) and the tracer. We were told that the ammo we had was left over from the Korean war.  If it was true, we didn't get many misfires.


Garrett Fulton