Gunnery - help!

[Georgio41]

The only target worth hitting behind a bomber is the engine pods and even these are armoured against rear attacks. Factor in the slant effect of your 'mouse' rounds (.303) ricoceting and it doesn't look good.

Learn to roll above the bomber then dive down into a slashing attack on the cockpit area, then roll under the bomber and hit them from below before zooming high and repeating.

Fire short effective bursts to conserve ammo; no one 'sprayed and prayed' in real life as it caused jams and malfunctions.

I used to chat about the war to my old barber in Leigh-on-Sea, he had his business all through the war and he vividly recounted watching the bomber streams flying up the Thames to London 'so many you couldn't count them' he would say.
He said that when a few RAF planes did get to the bomber streams they would be struggling to get height and would attack from the same level at slow speed.
End result was the RAF planes would get shot out of the sky.
I asked him how many RAF planes would he see and he said no more than a couple at a time and they'd have no effect on the bombers at all.

Bear in mind that these were the recollections of a very old man, he was at least 85 when I knew him, but he did seem compus mentus.

[Blackdog_kt]

Shooting directly from behind doesn't give good results and it's not a bug, it's supposed to be that way. There's a bunch of empty space there with the exception of the occasional armor plate to further ruin your day...it makes sense, the aircraft designers covered the rear positions with armor and guns because that's the easiest place to shoot from.

I have no problem shooting down 3 Dorniers and still have ammo left to damage a fourth, which may or may not crash later on.

The trick is not to shoot directly from their 6 o'clock position. Come in slightly from the side above/below. The way i get kills is not by making things explode. I either hit fuel tanks and engines while coming in sideways, or i kill the crews if i'm coming in from above.

Parking on their tail is certainly doable now that the AI gunners "feel" fear and have more variables in their experience, but that doesn't mean it's the optimal solution.

I get similar results with every other aircraft in the sim. I can chip away at a walrus or a gladiator with the G50 and it won't really matter, but coming in from the sides (slightly so, you don't have to be exactly perpendicular to their course, just come in from their 4-5 o'clock instead of dead six every time) i can kill the pilot more than half the times. Similar for attacking heavier aircraft like the Sunderland and Wellington with the 109 and 110.

Don't worry about maximizing time on target if your angle gets you no results, come in from a different angle even if that means a shorter amount of time spent shooting.

Even in short bursts, deflection shooting is your friend

[[RS]Boomer]

I had a problem shooting planes down in the Spit until I changed my ammo load out and convergence. You can set all those now and it saves. To use them just edit the mission you want to play and set you ammo belt to the one you saved. You can do all this in the full mission builder(after you create a load out). Once you change your ammo to your liking you will be unstoppable. I have blown up a 88 with a half second burst.

[Iamsnip]

So. If my convergence is set at 338m as it is in the ammo loadout menu - does that mean that when the range on the enemy reads .33 thats convergence?

[[RS]Boomer]

Originally Posted by Iamsnip

So. If my convergence is set at 338m as it is in the ammo loadout menu - does that mean that when the range on the enemy reads .33 thats convergence?

Yes, but I suggest you set it closer. These .303's do more damage at less than 200 meters in my experience. A WW2 Pilot once said(I paraphrase),"Just when you think you're close enough to shoot, get closer!"

And don't forget to change up the ammo types ie, MkVII, armor piercing, incendiary(thats how my load out goes except the two outboard guns have a incendiary tracer every 10 rounds).

[Iamsnip]

Thanks for coming back so quickly

[reflected]

Originally Posted by [RS]Boomer

I had a problem shooting planes down in the Spit until I changed my ammo load out and convergence. You can set all those now and it saves. To use them just edit the mission you want to play and set you ammo belt to the one you saved. You can do all this in the full mission builder(after you create a load out). Once you change your ammo to your liking you will be unstoppable. I have blown up a 88 with a half second burst.

I can't be arsed with FMB. Doesn't it work in QMB yet?

[Dazzed DJ]

Originally Posted by [RS]Boomer

I had a problem shooting planes down in the Spit until I changed my ammo load out and convergence. You can set all those now and it saves. To use them just edit the mission you want to play and set you ammo belt to the one you saved. You can do all this in the full mission builder(after you create a load out). Once you change your ammo to your liking you will be unstoppable. I have blown up a 88 with a half second burst.

Also does this work in Multiplayer yet as well?

[reflected]

Hmm it doesn't work in FMB either. I spend another 10 minutes setting up my ammo, saved it, and it got totally lost, no sign of it anywhere.

Damn, I want a QMB where I can select these things, it's inconcievalbe why didn't they implement it in the first place...

[Geronimo989]

I got it working in FMB only, and it is true, its much easier to shoot down bombers now. I shot down 4 dorniers with combination of dewilde, AP and tracers, compared to one or two with default ammo loadout in a spit (full real apart from anthro)