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| Effective Gunnery Techniques for CFS2 and IL2
By: 421RCAF Chaos
I dont claim to be an expert shot, ace, or even an above average pilot. I do however feel I am able to put my aircrafts bullets where they need to be on a fairly consistent basis. I enjoy the game, and just wanted to share some of my ideas and techniques. Hopefully they will be of help to someone, or at the very least, entertaining.
I was a competitive skeet shooter for a number of years. I still shoot on a regular basis to keep in form for the anual waterfowl migration. Anyway, one obsession at a time eh?
Many of the same principles and techniques that make one a consistent shot in skeet can be applied to CFS2. World War II Bomber Gunners, AA gunners, and fighter pilots were taught skeet. The difference between reducing clay targets to dust, and reducing your opponents aircraft to burning wreckage is simple. In one discipline you swing a shotgun, the other you maneuver an aircraft. Beyond that, its all the same. Here are the fundamentals:
Target acquisition
Starting your swing or pass at the target
Lead
Sight picture
Firing
Follow through
Target acquisition:
self explanatory
Starting your pass:
This is the point at which the shot begins to develop, and you should be thinking about which lead you will use.
Lead:
The distance ahead of a moving target you must sight to put your shot stream into it. Leads vary, dependent largely on target speed, distance and angle. If you miss behind, increase lead, if ahead, decrease.
In skeet, I learned there were 3 distinctive methods of lead:
Sustained lead:
The method chosen by the majority of skeet shooters, is a method where one keeps his bead/sight ahead of the target at all times.
Pass through:
Method where one brings his sight through the target from behind, firing when ahead. Also referred to as "Butt, Belly, Beak, BANG"
Pull away. Method where one holds bead/sight on target for a period and then pulls ahead/away and fires ahead of target.
Sight Picture:
Ever notice sometimes when you take a shot, you know its dead on before you pull the trigger? This is because we've done it before, and we store that mental image. When you're on you never have to stop and think about it. Your own computer (that thing twixt your ears) sees the picture, says thats it, and you hammer away. I try not to fire until I see a good sight picture. Saves on ammunition, and we all hate to run out with that rascal dead to rights in front of us.
Firing:
Use a controlled burst. Wait for the good mental sight picture. Adjust lead for misses ahead or behind target.
Follow through:
The practice of continuing your swing, or pass until well after you have fired. Targets keep moving, and if we dont continue to move with them, we will shoot well behind. Trust me, this is much more apparent when you can see those .303 tracers screaming toward your buddys FW-190 than a load of 9s at a clay. In general, follow through is a matter of course in air to air combat, especially during a turning fight.
I generally us all three methods in a turning fight. I like sustained lead but thats not always a luxury I have. Attacking from below I always use pass through. From above and a side attack, sustained. One of the most difficult shots (for me anyway) is a straight away from behind. Lead is minute, and difficult to judge. A method I sometimes use when banged up, with an attacker on my 6, is a very shallow turn, more of a lean really. More often then not they will sight right at you and shoot just behind, when they should be leading you. Always shoot where your oppenent will be, not where he is.
I also try to avoid head on's if possible. you have at best a 50-50 chance of getting away unscathed, and to hit him you have to fly right in his sights. I fail to see any advantage in that! Instead i try to intercept him at an angle, preferably from below, and loop up into him, which presents a small window off opportunity for a shot. It's a shot that generally requires a longer lead than you'd think, due to the closing speeds of the 2 aircraft. You wont knock him down, but you will slow him down a bit. Finish the loop, gaining speed, and you'll more often than not slip right in on his six for the finish.
Putting it all together.
I'm in a "No Fun" Furball. Targets of opportunity abound. Scanning around, I see a high incomer. He hasn't seen me as I'm skulking low in a camo Mustang. I loop up, waiting for my sight to clear the undernose of the Hurricane. I fire and roll away. I just used the "pass through" lead technique.
Leveling out, i see 421RCAF_Viper coming straight at me. Now i know Viper would love nothing more than a head on shot, and knowing what the result will be if I oblige him (new vents in my engine cowling for starters) I duck low and then Immelman. Viper starts a flat turn, and I dive in behind him, my sight already ahead, in a sustained lead, i wait, get a good sight picture, and send my pal on his way a few hundred rounds heavier than he started.
As i congratulate myself, flying along looking for a more target rich enviornment, Viper respawns (gotta love sims eh?)and slips in behind me. I turn to evade him, he follows, his sight on my fueselage, fires, the shot stream missing behind. Viper waits until i lose speed and pulls his sight ahead (pull away method) and returns the favor. What are friends for right?
More to come..........
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