Rules about tracers.

[Legbreaker]

There's obviously variations in between calibres, chemical composition and manufacturers, but as the eye can't register things moving very fast, I tend to believe what we were taught over what may have been observed.

[Panther Al]

Reminds me of a Gunnery at Carson years ago. We had to pull all the tracers from *all* the 30 cal in the troop and gather it up in one area to turn in at the end of gunnery since weather conditions indicated that tracers might start a fire. Well, at the end of gunnery (And personally shooting a 901) we had a few days of rain. Platoon Leader looks at me and says, "Hey, we still got all that tracer? And do we still have that shoot out barrel?" I think to myself: Oh, I like what he is thinking: So, we linked up a full 7k tracer belt, soaked a roll of TP in JP8, stuck it on a heat spike, and really gave the troop a show at our last night fire! At the end of the belt (Shot in a number of very long bursts) the barrel for the 240 was a smoothbore. Plenty of ass chewing from higher, but, to give the PL credit, he took the heat round, telling higher we did it as his instructions. He was safe: Daddy had stars on his shoulders.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Panther Al

Reminds me of a Gunnery at Carson years ago. We had to pull all the tracers from *all* the 30 cal in the troop and gather it up in one area to turn in at the end of gunnery since weather conditions indicated that tracers might start a fire. Well, at the end of gunnery (And personally shooting a 901) we had a few days of rain. Platoon Leader looks at me and says, "Hey, we still got all that tracer? And do we still have that shoot out barrel?" I think to myself: Oh, I like what he is thinking: So, we linked up a full 7k tracer belt, soaked a roll of TP in JP8, stuck it on a heat spike, and really gave the troop a show at our last night fire! At the end of the belt (Shot in a number of very long bursts) the barrel for the 240 was a smoothbore. Plenty of ass chewing from higher, but, to give the PL credit, he took the heat round, telling higher we did it as his instructions. He was safe: Daddy had stars on his shoulders.

And that's game, set and match to the Looie!!!


We used to do the TP roll soaked in gas when we fired HEAT rounds...IMMPRESSIVE muzzle blast!!!!

[Panther Al]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

And that's game, set and match to the Looie!!!


We used to do the TP roll soaked in gas when we fired HEAT rounds...IMMPRESSIVE muzzle blast!!!!

yeah: you should have heard the tower spas out when we opened up, fireball bigger than the tank, the tracers loaded up like they was left a trace that looked more like a laser beam than anything else. Tower was totally spastastic.

[Abbott Shaull]

The wake up call for hand grenade training was how they express the fuse was suppose to be 5 seconds, but if you were cooking them off. Well if you got to 3 it was about time to get rid of the damn thing as they would state the normal fuse time was 3-5 seconds...lol That a wake up call they restated a few times even though they had just told us, the fuse were suppose to be 5 second fuses.

So yeah one of those time where we got the items were being made by the lowest bidder....

[dragoon500ly]

Had a chance to use grenades again in Germany, but the NCOIC was an ex-Special Forces type with four tours in Vietnam under his belt. The day of the training, he had all of the grenades lined up on tables and started pulling firing assemblies. He then ignited the fuses and it was shocking how bad the difference, everything from 1 second all the way up to eleven seconds.

He then pulled a few coils of fuse, cut 2-3 lengths and burned them and got the right length for 5 seconds and then had us cut and install the correct lengths.

Two lessons; how to extract and reset fuses in grenades, and never trust the morons in the ammo plant!

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

...everything from 1 second all the way up to eleven seconds.

Which is why it's never a good idea to cook off a grenade.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by Panther Al

yeah: you should have heard the tower spas out when we opened up, fireball bigger than the tank, the tracers loaded up like they was left a trace that looked more like a laser beam than anything else. Tower was totally spastastic.

Oh, I bet. Good thing the Lt. knew someone with Stars on their shoulder. Otherwise, it probably would of been the end of his career for admitting that the crew were under his orders...lol

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

There's obviously variations in between calibres, chemical composition and manufacturers, but as the eye can't register things moving very fast, I tend to believe what we were taught over what may have been observed.

Too true....

But I am reminded of hand grenade training back in basic...our drill sergeant told us that the grenade had a five second fuse. He pulled the pin, let fly the safety lever and threw....a minute later it finally blew. Base EOD got called in and they pulled the firing assemblies and inspected the fuses....instead of the correct fuse, the manufactuer had substituted a longer-burning fuse.

Training is good, but never forget that your weapon system is built by the lowest bidder!

And there is an excellent chance that the factory worker is hung over and having a bad day!!

[Legbreaker]

Australian troops early on in Vietnam had all their grenades pulled - apparently instantaneous fuses had gotten into the mix and after one had it go off in his hand....

Good news was they still had claymores - wire them up before going into an assault, throw into the enemy bunker and hit the trigger. MUCH more satisfying than a grrenade.