[RichardH]

I think you should go for it nuk3m. In my opinion the basis of what you say is true. Part of the visual "squiggle" of tracer is the residue of the burning (phosphorous?) in the path of the bullet WHICH IS A SPIRAL, and if you ask a physicist (please do) the forces created by being fired from an aircraft flying at in excess of 200 knts (which is the velocity the bullet starts at before it is fired) in some amount of wind from any given direction will affect the path of the bullet.
Hence the complications of deflection shooting.
Besides this is a game and a pastime, and it's enquiring minds like nuk3ms and thoughts like this that have made AAA. Let him go.
As the tired old adage goes..."If you don't like the product, don't use it".

I'm grumpy today

Kopfdorfer

The complication of deflection shooting is from the fact that you are trying to shoot a moving target from a moving platform, not the medium in which the rounds travel.

Also, a bullet does not travel in a spiral, but in a straight line. The bullet itself is spinning about its own axis. Let me see if I can explain this better. The prop on the front (or rear) of the aircraft is spinning, while the aircraft is travelling in a straight line. While the propeller may be spinning about its center axis, it is also still travelling in a straight line, not a spiral. If the prop was travelling in a spiral, so too would the aircraft.

The gun cameras shot film. One of the drawbacks of film is that it requires a specific amount of light exposure time to produce an image. If the subject that you are filming moves faster than the time of exposure, you get trails. Like this:





And the spinning and squiggling effect you see on gun cam footage is just that, compounded by the fact that the world is moving violently around the camera (think relativity here) as the guns are fired, while in reality the tracers are moving in a relatively straight line.

amen! that should put an end to the squiggly tracers discussions that pops up from time to time.
I've fired thousands of rounds with the M2HB, and i have never seen a tracer doing a "spiral" when in flight..

Also (to the thread starter) Bullets without tracers also bounce off the ground if they strike the ground with a certain angle. Obviously you cant see those ricochets (sp?) because there's no tracer at the back of the bullet.