50cals......

[Doberman]

Originally posted by redman555
yeah wolf thats the think i know that 50cals can punch through inches of pure steel this is why im saying there underpowered, wings on planes are very vary thin steel but normally its not even steel sometimes its fiberglass or aluminum      
if 1 can punch through an inch or so of steel 10-20 should rip a wing clear off.

There are a couple of issues raised by your statement here.  

First off is:  You do realize that the .50 is not an explosive cannon round right?  It's just a hunk of metal.  It doesn't penetrate & explode, throwing shrapnel around everywhere like the cannons do.   A .50 caliber bullet punching a hole in a wing isn't going to rip a wing clear off unless it hits a spar.  I'm not exactly sure of the damage mapping, but if you're able to get 10 or 20 hit sprites in a wing root, that wing will come off no matter what the plane is.

Secondly:  I don't mean to denigrate you here, but there's no real way around it.  I have a bit of trouble believing that you're getting 10 or 20 hit sprites at the same location on your enemy.  Your hit % simply isn't high enough to convince me that you're able to concentrate your hits with a .50 as opposed to essentially spraying & praying the other guy.  Again, these aren't cannon where one round that explodes in the fuselage or wing may be enough to take out a plane.  These are simply metal slugs which, if they don't hit anything important (spar, fuel tank, pilot) on their way in & out of the plane can simply be shrugged off.  (And even at that, it'll take a good amount of .50 hits on a wing spar to damage it to the point of failure.)

You think that the .50s are undermodeled.  That's your perogative I guess.  But those of us who understand how they work and who have a decent hit percentage with them feel differently.  You might wanna do a little more research and put some stock in what we're saying.

[Saxman]

I popped the wing off DanoDano's 4-Hog with my last 40rds of .50 cal during a furball a couple nights ago. One of the damn luckiest shots I ever made.

[Kweassa]

yeah wolf thats the think i know that 50cals can punch through inches of pure steel this is why im saying there underpowered, wings on planes are very vary thin steel but normally its not even steel sometimes its fiberglass or aluminum
 if 1 can punch through an inch or so of steel 10-20 should rip a wing clear off.

 Unfortunately, you can't rip a wing off if you don't land them.

 A scattered hit is basically a bunch of holes in the wings, nothing more. Like others have mentioned the 50cals primarily rely on the kinetic potency of the rounds to actually hit something and break it, whereas cannons are essentially miniature grenade charges that detonate on impact. It's no wonder the latter is deemed at least three times as efficient than the former.

 So excuse us skeptics if we'd rather believe its your gunnery that sucks, rather than the 50cals are modelled wrong.

[stockli]

The only thing funny is how often you hit a canopy with any rounds in the game without a pilot wound being the result, then bang outta no where you get one for a shot from underneath.

Not saying its not accurate, its just peculiar.