What is the point in "tracer bullets" when they give your position away to the enemy???

Question

I know they show your own soldiers the direction of fire, but surely they give your position away also.............????

p.s if i was a military expert i wouldn't be asking this question!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

It is for crew served weapons(machine guns) to stay on target.  With a crew served weapon, part of your "crew" is spotting targets and trying to walk them onto target while feeding the gunner ammo.  Tracers allow the spotter to walk the gunner in much easier.  With a machine gun, your enemy will see you firing whether you are using tracers or not, so you might as well get the advantage.  Also, for rifles, I always put a few tracers at the bottom of each magazine so I know for sure when i'm about to run out.  Some guys put it at the bottom and top so the first few rounds will make it quicker for you to get on target.  There are many different styles I guess you would say.  

Answer 2

Suppressive fire, they are ducking their heads down!

Edit - it's area fire, tracers fall short.

Answer 3

it helps to know where your fire is going,but for every tracer bullet there is four rounds between each tracer

Answer 4

Knowing where your shots are going makes your fire more accurate!  

Not all tracers are the same color by the way!

Answer 5

The tracer came about to take out German zeppelins during ww1

Blake my 5th round i placed into a magazine would be a tracer for the very reason you pointed out.

Answer 6

It is not a stupid question.  And it is actually something that is preached.  "Remember, tracer rounds work both ways."  Nothing in this world works perfectly.  

They can also be used to indicate how many rounds you have left.

Answer 7

Consider that firing a weapon is usually loud, the mere act of firing one gives your position away.  Now, in  the dead of night, if you see a target wouldn't you want to see tracers when you fire so you can tell if you are getting close?  Or would you rather give your position away and shoot haphazardly at where you think the target is?

Answer 8

It is true that tracer is double edged.  They can give away your position  to an enemy, however the enemy has to be situated at the correct angle in order to follow the path back to the firer resulting in his head being above cover in the majority of cases - not good on a battlefield.  If memory serves tracer ignites at about 150/200 metres from the muzzle of the weapon.  Burn out is about 1100 metres.

Tracers are used mainly in crew served weapons ie GPMG gun groups.  The normal make up of a belt would be 4BIT (4 ball rounds to I tracer).  This would enable the gun controller and the firer to bring their weight of fire down onto the enemy by observing the fall of shot.  Tracer rounds, because of their manufacture have a higher trajectory than ball ammunition and this is borne in mind when directing fire.

Tracer can also be used as a target indicator.

Answer 9

Tracers are important because then you know where your bullets are going. I read somewhere that in the 2nd WW statistics have shown that out of 1 million shots only one scored. That's a bit of a consolation because you have1 in a million chance of being shot.

Answer 10

Yes that is true, tracers work both ways.  However the point of a tracer is to know where you are shooting and would also be used so your team knows where your shooting.  As far as it giving away your position, when you fire a weapon you get a muzzle flash no matter if it is a tracer or a ball and you can be spotted that way.

Answer 11

you fire your tracer bullets from a different position than the position you are located at

Answer 12

The point of Tracer bullets is to show you were you are shooting.  While you have sights on weapons, the sights don't take variables into account such as wind and humidity which will affect a bullets path over a distance.  So the tracers help show you were your bullets are actually going and allow you to correct your fire if required.

Answer 13

It doesn't take them long to find out where your position is, tracer or not.

The trick is to see them before they see you.