The 7.92mm in general are pretty ineffective from straight behind. I recall doing long dogfight sessions with a friend with early war type planes (Hurricane Mk.II etc) and there were times were one could exhaust the entire ammunition supply (at fairly close range from 6 o clock) onto the plane but it would not go down. Some control surface damages in the tail etc, yes. But not go down.
The reason for this is probably as simple as the official conclusions back in the day - only the engines and cockpit are effective to shoot at, while for cannons the entire plane is. MG type projectiles don't have enough energy for penetration of the skin and doing any considerable damage - especially at high deflection angles (straight from behind). And from behind it is hard to hit the engine and cockpit. An exception is if having perfect convergence with 8+ Mg's - then it can start causing destruction anywhere. And this is why the RAF was so concerned with convergece in general.
4x17mg are not completely useless, if used when doing long and medium range deflection shooting. There's so much ammo that you can fire for a really long time (nearly a full minute of trigger time), and hitting is not that difficult.
Often an enemy, when turning into you or around you or whatever, will be putting is lift vector on you (that is, you are straight up from the pilot's seat). This means the cockpit presents itself for a pilot killing opportunity, as well as engine, and the 4x17 fire 80 rounds per second.. almost like a modern minigun. The chance of hitting is much greater than when using the cannons. Just shower the fuselage, let them fly through the hail.
But when dealing with bombers, ground targets, shooting at something from behind, bouncing anything - the 108's are of course extremely superior. The 108 is a much better weapon. Question is how much - really - it affects aircraft performance. An extra 120-200+ kg at the nose should not affect roll rate, but it should make the aircraft have a worse turn rate (especially sustained turn), worse climb, worse acceleration. Meanwhile, it should be more stable (good for gunnery?), less likely to spin, less severe spins that are easier to recover from and..and.. and..
I have had no luck at all with 3.7 vs tanks ever. A big explosion but no dead tanks.
Oktoberfest - what about that Split-S for 110, any specific reason for using it?
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