Yak 1b conserving ammo

[Pruciak]

I'm flying the yak 1b and loving it. The only thing that I don't like is the little ammo compared to the luftwaffe machies. As now I'm firing both of my guns simultaneously, but is it good practise? Should I rather first use the .50 cal and when its out use the 20 mil? Or maybe the .50 is too weak alone and will require much more shots in order to down a target? Whats your experience in this manner? Looking to conserve ammo and maximise the kill count.

[Thad]

Decisions, decisions. I suggest you try every option available to you and decides what suits your piloting approach best. There is no one simple solution.

 

I tend to be very frugal with my cannon fire and usually use it only when very close to a enemy target for the greatest effect. ?

[ST_ami7b5]

My Thrustmaster Warthog JS has a two stage fire button, so I have mapped the first stage to MGs and the second stage to cannons.
Had a separate buttons before, when I was using G940 JS, but TM has no other easily reachable button suited for cannon fire so I went this way now.

Edited September 2, 2018 by ST_ami7b5

[Pruciak]

Also have a warthog but using first stage only to fire all guns at once. 

[ST_ami7b5]

1 minute ago, Pruciak said:

Also have a warthog but using first stage only to fire all guns at once. 

Then you run out of cannon shells very quickly...

[Pruciak]

Well if its an accurate shot one burst can kill a fighter. I run out of ammo usually after scoring 4 or 5 kills.

[Requiem]

If I'm close enough to shoot I'll fire everything I've got at the bloody target. You never know if you will get another shooting chance, so make the most of it I say!

[Cpt_Siddy]

.50 cal is often more than enough to down 109, 190 is bit more durable and so are bombers. But the general gist is that you take easy shots with all guns, snap shots with all guns and high speed 6 chasers you range and gauge with .50 cals, then cannons. 

 

Most of the time, the cannon ammo is "use it or lose it". Because you don't want to spend too much time on target in populated airspace. 

[Garven]

I have a separate trigger just for mg's, but the vast majority of the time if I'm shooting I want as much lead as possible going down range.

[Finkeren]

35 minutes ago, Pruciak said:

Well if its an accurate shot one burst can kill a fighter. I run out of ammo usually after scoring 4 or 5 kills.

 

Then I fail to see your problem. Scoring 4-5 kills per mission is astoundingly good by any measure. 

 

Not sure you need to conserve ammo, if you regularly achieve that kind of result.

[Pruciak]

12 minutes ago, Finkeren said:

 

Then I fail to see your problem. Scoring 4-5 kills per mission is astoundingly good by any measure. 

 

Not sure you need to conserve ammo, if you regularly achieve that kind of result.

Thanks for nice words but I feel I can do better? maybe you are right and I shouldnt be so concerned. 

[CrazyDuck]

Yup, low ammocount is what I hate about the otherwise outstanding Yak-1B the most. Because of it I tend not to shoot at longish distances (more than 150 m) at all, and only blast away with both guns at point blank range. Sometimes I'll take short MG-only shots at those pesky run-nineties who are getting away, but otherwise abstain from wasting ammo at distances longer than roughly 150 m.

 

Also, consider that UBS was by far the most powerful HMG mounted on aircraft in WW2. It had about twice the hitting power of Mg-131 or Breda Safat, and was still some 20% more powerful than the mighty M2.

 

You might consider switching to Yak-7B. Very similar aircraft, it has one additional UBS machinegun in the nose, but worse view out of the cockpit (to the rear). Maneuverability and performance nearly identical as Yak-1B.

Edited September 2, 2018 by CrazyDuck

[TWC_Ace]

1 hour ago, SYN_Requiem said:

If I'm close enough to shoot I'll fire everything I've got at the bloody target. You never know if you will get another shooting chance, so make the most of it I say!

Exactly. Im doing the same. Real pilots did the same. Fire only when your sure you will hit something and use all your guns.

[Ehret]

Switch to the P-40 if you can - no more ammo struggles when carrying 4x 0.50" plus the 600 rounds per gun option. You will struggle with the engine, instead...

[StickMan]

2 hours ago, Pruciak said:

Also have a warthog but using first stage only to fire all guns at once. 

^This. If you put the cannons on the second stage that could be as many as 2 cannon shells not entering your target in that split second delay of going from the first to second stage. Which is quite a a lot of possible damage you won't be doing.

Edited September 2, 2018 by StickMan

[III/JG53Frankyboy]

Dogfightserver Proplems

[Pruciak]

9 hours ago, CrazyDuck said:

Yup, low ammocount is what I hate about the otherwise outstanding Yak-1B the most. Because of it I tend not to shoot at longish distances (more than 150 m) at all, and only blast away with both guns at point blank range. Sometimes I'll take short MG-only shots at those pesky run-nineties who are getting away, but otherwise abstain from wasting ammo at distances longer than roughly 150 m.

 

Also, consider that UBS was by far the most powerful HMG mounted on aircraft in WW2. It had about twice the hitting power of Mg-131 or Breda Safat, and was still some 20% more powerful than the mighty M2.

 

You might consider switching to Yak-7B. Very similar aircraft, it has one additional UBS machinegun in the nose, but worse view out of the cockpit (to the rear). Maneuverability and performance nearly identical as Yak-1B.

The 7B is too sluggish for me and it overheats more easily?

Thanks for all the replies it figures I'm not doing so badly after all.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Pruciak

[216th_Jordan]

11 hours ago, StickMan said:

^This. If you put the cannons on the second stage that could be as many as 2 cannon shells not entering your target in that split second delay of going from the first to second stage. Which is quite a a lot of possible damage you won't be doing.

 

You get a feeling for shooting and won't need that split second. Sometimes just MG fire is needed (straight flyinh target more than 300m away) then its useful to also have it.

 

Btw: I always thought the first trigger would stop firing once the second got active, so I bound fire all guns to the second trigger. It works the other way too with cannons only?

[Ehret]

I have 2 modifiers + trigger to shot MG/cannon individually in the P-39. I use them when strafing, mostly. A very nice option could be controllable on/off gun switches which are already in the cockpit (in left side of the dashboard). Then 0.30"s would become a great armament for attacking soft targets without wasting 0.50"s ammo reserves, first.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Ehret

[Diggun]

Fly the Spit Vb for a bit. Then your Yak's ammo will feel very long lived by comparison...

[-TBC-AeroAce]

I have a two stage trigger with just mg on the first and all guns on the second. TBH I almost always all guns. Now if we had different convergence ranges for each gun like in 1946 that might change. 

[Ehret]

4 hours ago, AeroAce said:

I have a two stage trigger with just mg on the first and all guns on the second. TBH I almost always all guns. Now if we had different convergence ranges for each gun like in 1946 that might change. 

 

And on/off gun switches like the P-39 and the P-40 have. In the latter you could set one pair of 0.50"s for long range shooting, the rest for the short range. Or anything between.

[Stryker07]

I used to fly the Zero a lot in 46, so I set my cannons to a button on my throttle, and my trigger for MGs. The Zeke has a handle on the throttle for cannon fire in the genuine article. I've been using that setup ever since. Does allow for some pretty slick cannon shooting since my joystick doesn't move a millimeter when i am firing cannons.