The burns on the window looked like little black spiders, with a central spot and little radiating streaks. With enough of them on the window, and with the natural motion of your head looking around, it was possible to line two of them up in such a way as to make them seem to be a 3-dimensional object, and many a pilot has been about to take avoiding action on an imminent birdstrike.
I have some old poor-condition 8mm movie film shot through the gunsight while firing the minis and a ripple-14 rocket launch. The colours have faded sadly, but the sensation was still there. Minus the burning smells and the Fffffwwwwooooshhh sounds. Also captured (from the ground) a brown-eye from a door gunner.
Night gunnery was like holding a hose that was pushing out sparks, and playing the sparks onto the target. Just watch out for the used-up LUU-2B parachute flares from the overhead Chinook - as the flare burned out, it also burned through the parachute risers, and the remaining metal canister then dropped in the dark.
