50 Cals are trash

[chicks99]

Flying in the P51 and my 50 cals dont hurt bombers like 20mms would. 1 single German 20mm mine shell contains more explosives than probably all the 1880 50 cal bullets in my P51 D30. I can't kill bombers from derpy angles, instead I either need to head on them, Get profile shots, or Be right behind them and all these are more dangerous than if I just attack at weird angles. However weird angles makes it much harder to land shots and if I do land shots only a few land on target, 50 cals don't do enough damage to kill the targets in these few shots.

I hate these 50 cals because Im more used to the german 20mm cannons which spell out "death" if you're hit by one of the minegessoss 20mms. These 50 cals are so bad, They can't kill planes instantly unless its a rare pilot snipe. Even japanese planes still live for up to 30 seconds when burning from my 50 cals, thats enough time to finish getting a kill on a comrade who was kind enough to bait for me.

Anyone know a fix to the low damage output?

[Rogue Cloud]

Originally posted by chicks99:

Flying in the P51 and my 50 cals dont hurt bombers like 20mms would. 1 single German 20mm mine shell contains more explosives than probably all the 1880 50 cal bullets in my P51 D30. I can't kill bombers from derpy angles, instead I either need to head on them, Get profile shots, or Be right behind them and all these are more dangerous than if I just attack at weird angles. However weird angles makes it much harder to land shots and if I do land shots only a few land on target, 50 cals don't do enough damage to kill the targets in these few shots.

I hate these 50 cals because Im more used to the german 20mm cannons which spell out "death" if you're hit by one of the minegessoss 20mms. These 50 cals are so bad, They can't kill planes instantly unless its a rare pilot snipe. Even japanese planes still live for up to 30 seconds when burning from my 50 cals, thats enough time to finish getting a kill on a comrade who was kind enough to bait for me.

Anyone know a fix to the low damage output?

You are correct about the German rounds having more explosives than all of your 50 cal rounds because... Well your 50 cal rounds don't have any explosives.

50 cals are pretty good at ripping planes apart (not exploding them like German ammunition does), so they can make a lot of holes in very little time. When going for bombers, try to go for the wings and engines instead of trying to shoot it til you get the target destroyed text. If you go for the engines, tail (elevators and rudder), or wings and critically damage those parts, you can fly away and wait for it to die.

[Futuristic Hexagon]

50 cals are not too bad. It comes down to a lot of things, first choose the belts with the most API/API-T. These have a significantly higher chance of setting stuff on fire.

As mentioned earlier, where you hit and maybe even how close will help also affect the outcome. Do mind your convergence too. A P-51 doesn't have a motor cannon like the 109s, so that number does mean something in the long run.

[RustyNail]

Originally posted by chicks99:

Flying in the P51 and my 50 cals dont hurt bombers like 20mms would. 1 single German 20mm mine shell contains more explosives than probably all the 1880 50 cal bullets in my P51 D30. I can't kill bombers from derpy angles, instead I either need to head on them, Get profile shots, or Be right behind them and all these are more dangerous than if I just attack at weird angles. However weird angles makes it much harder to land shots and if I do land shots only a few land on target, 50 cals don't do enough damage to kill the targets in these few shots.

I hate these 50 cals because Im more used to the german 20mm cannons which spell out "death" if you're hit by one of the minegessoss 20mms. These 50 cals are so bad, They can't kill planes instantly unless its a rare pilot snipe. Even japanese planes still live for up to 30 seconds when burning from my 50 cals, thats enough time to finish getting a kill on a comrade who was kind enough to bait for me.

Anyone know a fix to the low damage output?

Maybe think about how the two actually compare?

A 20mm round is approximately .79 cal. It's a much larger/heavier round. Much more mass and energy than any .50 cal - if it hits the target. Now add HE fillers and the result is that one 20mm round can cause FAR more damage than your .50 cal. What your .50 cal has is a flatter trajectory that makes aiming far simpler.

[chicks99]

Originally posted by RustyNail:

Originally posted by chicks99:

Flying in the P51 and my 50 cals dont hurt bombers like 20mms would. 1 single German 20mm mine shell contains more explosives than probably all the 1880 50 cal bullets in my P51 D30. I can't kill bombers from derpy angles, instead I either need to head on them, Get profile shots, or Be right behind them and all these are more dangerous than if I just attack at weird angles. However weird angles makes it much harder to land shots and if I do land shots only a few land on target, 50 cals don't do enough damage to kill the targets in these few shots.

I hate these 50 cals because Im more used to the german 20mm cannons which spell out "death" if you're hit by one of the minegessoss 20mms. These 50 cals are so bad, They can't kill planes instantly unless its a rare pilot snipe. Even japanese planes still live for up to 30 seconds when burning from my 50 cals, thats enough time to finish getting a kill on a comrade who was kind enough to bait for me.

Anyone know a fix to the low damage output?

Maybe think about how the two actually compare?

A 20mm round is approximately .79 cal. It's a much larger/heavier round. Much more mass and energy than any .50 cal - if it hits the target. Now add HE fillers and the result is that one 20mm round can cause FAR more damage than your .50 cal. What your .50 cal has is a flatter trajectory that makes aiming far simpler.

A flatter trajectory doesnt matter when Im shooting at bombers from less than 1 km away trying to blast their wing, tail, or fuselage off. If my rounds are incapable of blowing their plane up and other countries can do it, then what does the 50 cal do to make up for it? Other than range, nothing else really, and even the Range doesnt matter because its hard to aim from 2km away if the enemy knows what turning is.

[chicks99]

Originally posted by Leonov:

50 cals are not too bad. It comes down to a lot of things, first choose the belts with the most API/API-T. These have a significantly higher chance of setting stuff on fire.

As mentioned earlier, where you hit and maybe even how close will help also affect the outcome. Do mind your convergence too. A P-51 doesn't have a motor cannon like the 109s, so that number does mean something in the long run.

When im dogfighting and land 1 or 2 shots they dont start fires enough even if Im using Tracer belt or ground belt. The gun convergence I've set is 700m so Its not suppost to have problems hitting bombers.

[Tornat]

just really depends on your aim , got to put those 50's in engines for shooting bombers , the bigger 20m cannons are a bit more flexible on the spots to shoot down a bomber sure , but i like the 50's more than cannons for shooting fighters that's the primary role of the p51 anyways.

[chicks99]

Originally posted by Rogue Cloud:

Originally posted by chicks99:

Flying in the P51 and my 50 cals dont hurt bombers like 20mms would. 1 single German 20mm mine shell contains more explosives than probably all the 1880 50 cal bullets in my P51 D30. I can't kill bombers from derpy angles, instead I either need to head on them, Get profile shots, or Be right behind them and all these are more dangerous than if I just attack at weird angles. However weird angles makes it much harder to land shots and if I do land shots only a few land on target, 50 cals don't do enough damage to kill the targets in these few shots.

I hate these 50 cals because Im more used to the german 20mm cannons which spell out "death" if you're hit by one of the minegessoss 20mms. These 50 cals are so bad, They can't kill planes instantly unless its a rare pilot snipe. Even japanese planes still live for up to 30 seconds when burning from my 50 cals, thats enough time to finish getting a kill on a comrade who was kind enough to bait for me.

Anyone know a fix to the low damage output?

You are correct about the German rounds having more explosives than all of your 50 cal rounds because... Well your 50 cal rounds don't have any explosives.

50 cals are pretty good at ripping planes apart (not exploding them like German ammunition does), so they can make a lot of holes in very little time. When going for bombers, try to go for the wings and engines instead of trying to shoot it til you get the target destroyed text. If you go for the engines, tail (elevators and rudder), or wings and critically damage those parts, you can fly away and wait for it to die.

I do give credit that the 50 cals are good at ripping wings off, but thats only if Im shooting something weak like a Bf109. Im talking about Me264s, Ju 288s, and He177s that the 50 cals have problems with. They dont put a dent in them unless I shoot close enough to light them on fire. Im shooting Me264s from 2km away and all it does is make their gas leak at most even though Im getting hit markers. 50 cals only work against Bf109s and Yaks, not much else. Fw190s and do335s can live easily.

[chicks99]

Originally posted by Tornat:

just really depends on your aim , got to put those 50's in engines for shooting bombers , the bigger 20m cannons are a bit more flexible on the spots to shoot down a bomber sure , but i like the 50's more than cannons for shooting fighters that's the primary role of the p51 anyways.

Shooting down fighters is way more risky than attacking bombers imo.

[RustyNail]

Originally posted by chicks99:

Originally posted by RustyNail:

Maybe think about how the two actually compare?

A 20mm round is approximately .79 cal. It's a much larger/heavier round. Much more mass and energy than any .50 cal - if it hits the target. Now add HE fillers and the result is that one 20mm round can cause FAR more damage than your .50 cal. What your .50 cal has is a flatter trajectory that makes aiming far simpler.

A flatter trajectory doesnt matter when Im shooting at bombers from less than 1 km away trying to blast their wing, tail, or fuselage off. If my rounds are incapable of blowing their plane up and other countries can do it, then what does the 50 cal do to make up for it? Other than range, nothing else really, and even the Range doesnt matter because its hard to aim from 2km away if the enemy knows what turning is.

Planes equipped with .50 cal had some advantages. .50s being much smaller and lighter = more ammo per gun. Smaller/lighter projectiles = flatter trajectory = easier to hit your target. But NO WAY IN HELL is a .50 cal ever going to be able to inflict damage comparable to what a 20mm does. The laws of physics won't let it happen.

Here's a page with a size comparison:
https://bottlebreacher.com/blog/whats-the-difference-502030mm/

[RustyNail]

Originally posted by chicks99:

Originally posted by Tornat:

just really depends on your aim , got to put those 50's in engines for shooting bombers , the bigger 20m cannons are a bit more flexible on the spots to shoot down a bomber sure , but i like the 50's more than cannons for shooting fighters that's the primary role of the p51 anyways.

Shooting down fighters is way more risky than attacking bombers imo.

I suspect that if the U.S. had needed to intercept heavy bombers in WWII we would have known that .50cals would be inefficient; and equipped our interceptors with 20mm - 30mm cannon; just as the Germans did. Vs fighters, the .50 was more than good enough.

[NovasGoSuper2]

You do know .50 cal is about 12.7mm

[RustyNail]

Originally posted by NovasGoSuper2:

You do know .50 cal is about 12.7mm

Yep, and 20mm = ~ 0.79 inch. Almost .80 cal ;-)

[76561198269168218]

Originally posted by chicks99:

Flying in the P51 and my 50 cals dont hurt bombers like 20mms would. 1 single German 20mm mine shell contains more explosives than probably all the 1880 50 cal bullets in my P51 D30. I can't kill bombers from derpy angles, instead I either need to head on them, Get profile shots, or Be right behind them and all these are more dangerous than if I just attack at weird angles. However weird angles makes it much harder to land shots and if I do land shots only a few land on target, 50 cals don't do enough damage to kill the targets in these few shots.

I hate these 50 cals because Im more used to the german 20mm cannons which spell out "death" if you're hit by one of the minegessoss 20mms. These 50 cals are so bad, They can't kill planes instantly unless its a rare pilot snipe. Even japanese planes still live for up to 30 seconds when burning from my 50 cals, thats enough time to finish getting a kill on a comrade who was kind enough to bait for me.

Anyone know a fix to the low damage output?

thats really. right i dont know if you have used p51 the early version its like sniper of the enemies few ammo super damage if 2 rounds can set your enemy on fire (not mentioning the damage) so enemy will be all out i use 20mm in my ground rb and i mix it with 50 cal tracer shell(f6f5n) which can destroy every thing in few shots . but about weight those 20mm are heavy so you wont get that mush speed and you lose it on turnings . so on early p51 they got rid of extra ammo for getting better at dog fight and it ended up using 50 cal again .that means you have to sacrifice somthing for other one but those bf 109s have no problem with those so its really hard to engage them with out back gunners .

[Futuristic Hexagon]

Originally posted by chicks99:

Originally posted by Leonov:

50 cals are not too bad. It comes down to a lot of things, first choose the belts with the most API/API-T. These have a significantly higher chance of setting stuff on fire.

As mentioned earlier, where you hit and maybe even how close will help also affect the outcome. Do mind your convergence too. A P-51 doesn't have a motor cannon like the 109s, so that number does mean something in the long run.

When im dogfighting and land 1 or 2 shots they dont start fires enough even if Im using Tracer belt or ground belt. The gun convergence I've set is 700m so Its not suppost to have problems hitting bombers.

With API loaded Brownings, I haven't had issues, even before significant buffs made to the guns just before the Italian tree hit. In fact, back then fires were common (though damage outside that were not).

700m convergence is Too far out. I would recommend 400-500 for the Brownings, and engage typically within 600m. Then can still be effective further out, but engaging closer ensures more rounds hit. Even with the lowered convergence, you'll still see they can do a lot of damage still.

You shouldn't have issues with most bombers. Later M2s are pretty good at taking down opponents. I think engaging closer would help you get a better shot at hitting something vital more easily.

[SwooshBear]

50 cals suffer