Gunnery Fundamental, tips and advice

[VO101_Tom]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

Hi Tom
I found that the default convergence of the 109 is not the best to use. If you experiment with it, you will notice the hit ratio increasing or even decreasing, depending on your chosen settings.

What convergence do you use? How many meters?

[Hellbender]

I have no problem with the default convergence of the 109E, especially with the MGs which are more than nice to fire from all angles at enemy aircraft sicne it is so easy to lead with them sicne their are palced on the nose. Much more difficult it is to do the same work with the Spit or Hurri with wing mounted guns. I loved all the nose mounted cannons and MGs in Il 2 1946.

In general, for Spits and Hurris, use a convergence around 200m or lower and fill the ammo belts with a mix of DeWilde and AP rounds. If possible, try to get as close as possible with your plane on the enemy aircraft and start perforating it.

[macro]

i use 110 meters.

for the spit it does matter

if you use long range conv. then you get 2 hit spots either side of your dot on the gun sight (at close range where you are far more likly to get hits), 110 (or another close setting) means both hit on the dot at close range. this means you have to fill up the site with the enemy Ac, but this also means you can aim at a specific part of the plane with all the guns, (i.e cockpit, fueltanks, weakspots on bombers etc). if all the guns are hitting the same spot, it doesnt take a long burst to destroy whatever they hit. being restricted to close combat also means you save ammo, as you only get 12 seconds of fire as it is.

thats my preference anyway

[5./JG27.Farber]

I use the 400 200 on cannons and 400 400 on MGs as per the Luftwaffe diagram. Like Tom said with the cannons they are fairley inaccurate and so for this reason I only use them for close range, like 100 metres on small targets like fighters. I also like to save ammo and confirm I am going to hit by using the MG's to draw on to the target and when you see hits fire the big guns... Tracers and or Beobachtung are good for this.

Firing on fighters dead 6 is kinda wasteful, the low volocity cannon rounds tend to go over and under the wings of your target as the wings are so thin from this angle. In fact from dead 6 you are better using the nose MG's to aim for the oil cooler or water rad as this will be just as crippling as a hole in the wing... Firing straight down the fusalage is largely wasteful.

The best target I feel for a fighter is 90 degree on top on from below as he turns. You often have to draw blind lead under your nose and experieced red pilots will add slip with the rudder so expect to miss sometimes. How ever the window for shooting is smaller so you use less ammo and the target is bigger so you have more chance of a hit. Ideally these shots are at less than 100 metres, wingspan of target fighter once in your recticle, you have to get close.

I had cannons for a long time set to 100metres however this only limits your options should you need to fire them at longer distance... Like to scare someone off your wingman. The cannon trails have a good phycological effect...


I'd really love to try a 109 with 8 wing MG's like the hurri set up just to see what its like...

Just my 2 cents, as always...