9 with petals having thickened upper portions or by inserting a resilient spacer shown in fig3 is an alternative shotgun shell 21 which generally has a hull 2 with a metal base cap 3 and a crimped top 4 as shown in fig4 when used with the alternative shotgun shell 21 a disk shaped piercing valve 8 with a centrally located perpendicular point 18 made of metal hard plastic or a similar rigid material and a tracer cylinder 5 with container portion 15 holding tracer liquid 6 can be loaded into a conventional wad without any shot pellets particularly when a shooter wishes to fire it merely as an indicator or reference when this embodiment is assembled a cylindrical wad 22 made from polypropylene polyethylene or another high strength plastic is placed inside the hull 2 of the shell 21 above the propellant 11 inside base cap 2 the wad 22 is typically formed with shock absorbing compression columns 23 a 23 b 23 c 23 d and has a gas seal 24 formed in its lower end the tracer cylinder 5 is then placed into the wad shot holder 25 inside the petals 26 a 26 b 26 c 26 d which surround the sidewall 20 and cushion the tracer cylinder 5 during ignition and which open and fall away when.