The Type 97 fired solid-steel armour-piercing-tracer (AP-T), high-explosive-tracer and high-explosive incendiary-tracer shells. The initial AP-T round was the Type 97 and it had a softer grade of steel than the later Type 100. The AP-T projectiles had a muzzle velocity of . Based on a captured Japanese ammunition table, the Type 97 round was credited with the ability to penetrate of armour at 90° at a range of . The same table credited it with the ability to penetrate of armour at .