Do tracers cause any actual damage.

[Ploughman]

Originally Posted by Letum

In reality, tracer rounds are only about 5%-15% lighter than a normal round and just as solid. The lead that is lost in the tracer is very soft anyway and the harder jacket remains very similar.

So yes, tracer rounds have very similar characteristics to standard rounds. In fact, tracer rounds are designed to be as similar to ball rounds as possible in order to match their flight path as closely as they can.
There are differences of course, but they are negligible for most purposes,

I remember some story from the Ubi-Zoo about an American fighter group that removed tracers from their belts and found they scored much better as the tracer had a different ballistic behaviour to the ball and was causing them to miss with the bulk of their fire. I know this is .50 cal, and the difference with .303 would be substantial. Anyone remember the details of this?

Originally Posted by Ploughman

I remember some story from the Ubi-Zoo about an American fighter group that removed tracers from their belts and found they scored much better as the tracer had a different ballistic behaviour to the ball and was causing them to miss with the bulk of their fire. I know this is .50 cal, and the difference with .303 would be substantial. Anyone remember the details of this?

Actually, it was very common for many, if not all, American groups in Europe to use Armor Piercing, Incendiary M8 exclusively (except for the last several seconds of the belt when Tracers M20 were often mixed in to warn of low ammo). This allowed the shooter to begin firing without visually warning the target he was being fired at (it was fine if he took the dynamic clues, apparently) and the API would flash fairly brightly when it struck something, so the shooter could see that he was hitting the target. By the end of the war tracers weren't even being delivered to some groups anymore. There is a minor ballistic difference between the two types but the statements that this could "throw one's aim off" is a bit of an overstatement. --- It might be a fairer statement if M1 Tracer were mixed with M8 API, though, as M1 was intended to work with M2 Ball. So M1 Tracer was to be used with M2 Ball and M20 APIT with M8 API. ---

M21 Headlight tracers (much brighter and designed to be visible from the target area) were sometimes (not clear on how much) used by bomber gunners because it was believed that enemy pilots could be intimidated or distracted by seeing tracers coming towards them.

T48 rounds are the ones I want, it was a lighter projectile with a higher velocity and much hotter incendiary to ignite lower grade fuel (as in jet). Used only by the 56th at end of the war but would be a great 1946 round.

[Redroach]

oh, I forgot about that... thanks for the answers anyway, now I've got it I believe