the .50 cal debate has gone round and round even in the relatively short time ive been here.

At one point, i was heavily for the reworking of the .50 cal guns. That opinion has changed slightly.
Previously, i was hitting the tail and wings with the .50s, but they are noticeably more effective when they hit the front end of the fuselage, such as the cockpit or engine.
Also they fall away much less than any other caliber gun in turns and at high speed.
(This would be the same for 13mm, and the JPN equivalent, except some allied planes carry larger capacity of ammo and more guns to shoot them from)
Another way they differ from cannons is the tracers. With 50s and 30s you can follow a bead right to your target, where cannon shots usually give you spread of tracer rounds but actual hits may vary because you can't get a solid bead on where your rounds are landing. Not that that is necessary when two or three cannon rounds takes a tail off, or blows a wing to pieces, but at higher speeds i do notice a difference.

I have also noticed that some fighters are a bit resistant to the 50s, and for the sake of argument i wont go into that now, but probably that's what sparked my original protest about the 50s being weak, when in fact, if they land square on most planes they get eaten up pretty quickly.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimston2008:
I just figured that maybe the .30 had less bullet drop at altitude, several hundred meters away, seeing as the smaller round has less mass.

Mass has effectively no effect on drop, but it has a big effect on how well the bullet retains velocity.

Both rounds will drop approximately the same distance below the weapon bore line in the same time. It's distance that matters.
The heavier .50 calibre bullet slows down less because it has a higher mass:drag ratio. Because is slows down less, it travels further for the same amount of drop. This means the pilot/gunner does not need to allow for distance to target as much with the .50 as he/she would with a .30 calibre.

Right, i understand that a larger round with more powder retains energy for a longer period of time. I especially notice that while trying to shoot down German bombers, while using a Yak-1, or early Mig, the small caliber guns are very weak when compared to Heavy MG rounds.

As a fairly new pilot having played a little less then a month, i seem to have more luck shooting down enemy fighters while using any weapons, whether it be Russian, German or American medium caliber rounds. my success rate is higher with smaller guns, and believe at the moment that it's due to the higher rate of fire.

You are probably too new to know about this but the 30 caliber light machine guns are modeled with API rounds that are more effective at igniting fuel tanks, but the difference also seems to be limited to certain bombers. I've lit up plnety of planes with 50 cal.
I think its just a matter of what you are aiming at. With APIs you'd probably make an effort to hit fuel tanks, where with the AP rounds of the 50s are better suited for hitting the engines. It never hurts to try to put the bead right in their lap with either caliber. Its usually a quick kill.

yeah, i figured there was both Armor piercing and Incendiary rounds. It's just a bit difficult to notice a difference when all rounds seem to create a similar flash.

I have the most luck attacking bombers when i aim between the engines. Setting them on fire makes me most happy.

I tend to favor the P-39 since it has machine guns on the wings, and the engine cowlings? With a cannon in the middle.

quote:

Just pointing out that despite appearances on this forum, there are 0.50 cal weapons out there that are not American

So cal 50 didn't win teh war at all

I had to look for these photos.
I thought it may be useful in this thread.
I took these pictures through the eyepiece of a Romanian BTR60 during my deployment.
It has two guns. A Soviet 14.5mm and a Soviet 30cal (7.62x54R). As you can clearly see, using the elevation to hit a target at 1,200 meters with the 7.62mm is the same elevation to hit a target 2,000 meters away with the 14.5mm. The bigger gun has a much flatter trajectory. The further away the target is, the more difference it will make between the two.