In WW2 several experienced pilots would
not use tracers, since the flashes of an initial missing burst flying by an unalerted target would often trigger evasive movement by "waking him up" .
Some pilots and/or units did have a few tracer rounds inserted as a bunch at or near the end of the ammo as a low ammo warning. (That may not have been a good idea, if the enemy clued onto it.)
Irrelevant for a ground game, but perhaps interesting trivia
!
For us ground pounders:
In the 70s (when I was in the infantry) it was part of the tactical doctrine for riflemen to keep 5 or so tracer in a stripper clip (or loose?) for
Target
Indication ("Watch my tracer").
Where the rounds were to come from, nobody actually said but presumably extracted from MG link ammo. We never actually carried any such on exercises etc, but the use of tracer as a target indication method was mentioned in the manual, and in lectures on basic field-craft (
GRIT was the acronym -
Group
Range, (target)
Indication,
Type of fire ).
See this thread, post #10
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums...e-Drill-Orders, which sounds familiar.
"Watch my tracer" was given in the manuals and lectures back then as a valid part of the "
I" in GRIT. Seem to recall it was to be reserved (for individual riflemen as opposed to the gun group) for difficult circumstances or for indicating to e.g. accompanying tanks (since you had to jiggle some loose/clipped rounds out of your pocket and into a mag and then get it onto the weapon to do so, presumably).
As I said - we never practised tracer T/I, as amongst other things it is I think not good for the SLR bore to have too many tracers stuffed down it. Plus it would have to be practised on a range for safety - and live firing ranges usually don't have any interesting terrain features to practice target indication upon.
Not really of interest for a game at the SP level, but you may find useful if playing one of those squad-level games online (or are about to take an office team out for a paintball weekend). If so, this PDF (written for airsofting I think - but covers the basics) may be useful.
http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/artic...fieldcraft.pdf
Cheers
Andy