tracer rounds and dodging bullets

It varies by rate of fire, but it's possible. Extremely unlikely however.

Ya gotta dodge the invisible ones too...

My point exactly. Though, missing a running target when firing an automatic weapon due to them running between the bullets so to speak is easier than it would seem.

Thing is, when trace comes directly at you...you can't really tell. There is no reference angle to actually see movement, just a green dot (or red). The trace that hit my pope glass was barely seen until a few feet before impact.

Green dot"BANG!!". That's about all the time I had to think about it.

I don't think so... the bullet is still going to be traveling 1500-1600 fps when it gets to you at 500m. so you have maybe half a second to see the muzzle flash and move, even with great reflexs that still only gives you about .35 seconds to get out of the way. Now all this is assuming you can see the muzzle flash. so Iwould have to say, you would know you were skrewed, but could do a damn thing about it.

Army nailed it. You can't tell if its coming directly at you until it's already there. The more acute the angle, the less accurate your judgment of direction is.

When I was in we loaded our mags with one tracer. It was the 4th round from the end.

Tracers can be bad. If your enemy is paying attention, the tracers can give you away.

Most tracers are mixed in with multiple normal rounds per tracer. So for every one you see there is several you don't.
In fact it is really impressive when you watch the tracers from a minigun and realize many rounds are in between every single tracer which appear to be coming out at a constant stream.

A tracer fired directly at you would not likely be seen until it was about at you. You would see the muzzle flash from the weapon much sooner than you would see the tracer.

Would the flight time allow for you to actually see the bullets in-flight with enough time for you to attempt to dodge the rounds?

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Negative. I think a 55 grain 5.56 NATO round is going over 3,000 FPS when fired... and as someone pointed out, at 500 yards its still going really fast. Unless you have your Matrix moves down, you are not dodging.



What it would do (tactically), is allow you to locate the position of the shooter's position- which would allow you to evade accordingly. Meaning, if you don't know where the fire is coming from (for example a sniper) you might not take proper cover... or run in the wrong direction, whereas the tracers would give you the advantage of knowing the direction of the fire... and later you could return fire.

You see tracers from the rear!

You can see the arc of some fired in your direction but not quite at you. However by the time your brain interpretes what is is seeing in the air (or "sees it") it has already gone by you.

Think about how many pictures are in a movie or 'motion picture' per second. Yet they look like they are actualy moving even though all you are watching is a slide show of pictures.
Now think how many feet that round is actualy moving per second.

Paintballs are going slow enough that at a distance you can see, react, and dodge.

But I think the most you are going to do with a .223 is have time to do is think "crap".

As others have stated, the round is moving so fast it will hit you at the perceived moment you hear the gunshot. No human reaction time.

A 223 with a MV of 3200fps takes about .712 seconds to travel 500yds and is still moving about 1700fps (50grn)

If your reaction time is .400 you would have to react to the pop of the gun rather than visual....

My opinion... Its impossible to dodge a bullet that fast at that distance..

you would have to react to the pop of the gun rather than visual....

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I am thinking that with a hypersonic round like the .223, by the time you hear the pop you have been shot for a while.

That tracer round you just saw would be the last thing to go through your mind.

Neo-Luddite said:

That tracer round you just saw would be the last thing to go through your mind.

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...and brain!

buck00 beat me to it lol

If you hear the shot and there are no holes in you yet, they missed.

“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”
Winston Churchill

How'd this move to the sound of the discharge? I thought we were talking about seeing the trace. I know for a fact that, at least with "real" guns, i.e, .308 and .30-06, that at the 600 yd target butts, you heard the crack of the bullet going by long before you hear the boom of the discharge --by about at least 200 ms.

The first thing that occurred to me was, as someone else asked, if it's coming almost exactly at you, "Can you see the trace from the front of the bullet?"

Does it leave a glowing trail that might be seen as it moves up and down in its arc toward you?

Trace in the day is very difficult to discern as it comes toward you (same as muzzle flash). Trace (and muzzle flash) at night is easily seen from any angle, the bullet does NOT block out the burning element.

Imagine trying to hit a Randy Johnson slider. Now imagine he's throwing an aspirin instead of a baseball. Now imagine he's throwing an aspirin a thousand times as fast from half a mile away.

OK....I can see you dodging one with a few caveats. First, the round must be made so the trace is clearly visible from the front. It also must be illuminated as it exits the muzzle to give you the longest possible recognition/reaction time. And, you would need some kind of agreement with the shooter that he was aiming (and going to hit) you square in the chest. Then, it would be possible to see, recognise and move your chest more than half-a-chest sideways to be missed.

Lacking any of the above conditions, you woulnd't stand a chance. Even IF you saw the bullet leave the muzzle, watching it long enough to gauge its' trajectory and path....will use up all your evasion time should it be going to hit you. Worst case would be one that was going to miss to the side and you jump in front of it. Darn! I HATE when that happens...

Regardless of hearing the shot, seeing the shot, seeing the trace, etc.

you wouldn't stand a chance.

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That says it all right there.

rcmodel