What’s the best ammo for the American .50 calls? I’ve been playing the P51-H-NA recently and I’ve seen some people using universal, some tracer etc. I keep getting hits but not really doing damage, although that could definitely be attributed to the caliber of the rounds. Any tips?
the best belt is tracer cuz its full API-T
as a rule of thumb
always use the belt with the most HE rounds
if HE does not exist go for the belt with most API rounds
btw try hitting the center of mass of the aircraft with AP and API rounds so you hit the engine, pilot, cooling systems and fuel tanks
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Also airplanes have armour and armour thickness, bullets have effective range.
Many pilots are protected by ~20mm pilot armour (effective thickness - because angle of impact/armour slope is a thing too just like with tanks!). Engines and fuel tanks too.
Firing from closer will blast right through such armour and destroy whatever is in the way. This is usually under 500 meters or so.
Firing from afar will lead to the bullet bouncing off the armour harmlessly.
Additionally, the modification that upgrades your guns makes them TOO accurate IMO. I recommend turning it off to increase gun spread. This maximizes the chances that you hit a vital component when you fire rather than lasering a tiny spot.
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Not sure, if it’s because of the spars eating AP rounds or if the incendiary rate was lowered but API-T isn’t as effective as it used to be.
But it’s still the best you can pick, since API and API-T are the only real damage dealer for US .50cals, since Incendiary bullets offer no advantage at the moment.
I always felt like I was the only person with this opinion, glad to see im not alone
General rule of thumb, avoid any purely Incediary rounds, they can even get past the fabric skin of reserve aircraft or the glass of most cockpits. Let alone a fuel tank.
Even then 12.7 incendiary rounds can’t oneshot pilots
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That doesn’t cause problems with jamming? If you do that with something like the Hispanos they jam every 3 shots.
stock 50cals don’t overheat a lot.
Never an issue really
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Fair enough, I’ll give it a try some time, after playing the early Spitfires I got into the habit of going straight for the gun mod to prevent jamming, but most things are not anywhere near as bad as the Hispanos, they just made me paranoid about it.
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Stock hispanos are actual torture
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The ones on the mosquito made me want to throw myself off an overpass
Never had an issue firing at most 1 second long bursts.