Yes, it is time to fix the buff guns. In fact, it is time to fix ALL the guns.
"50 Caliber Weapons Report" contains an interesting 8 minute video prepared by the U.S. Marine Corps to demonstrate barrier penetration performance of various .50 caliber ammunition. The video can be viewed on your PC using RealPlayer. A link to the the video is published below.
http://www.house.gov/waxman/Guns/50/Video/video.html While this video is of modern .50 BMG performance, it makes it clear that this is a very, very powerful round.
For "standard" WW2 type ball ammo, here are some figures.
http://www.gunnery.net/warwagon/50bmg.htm "The following data is for Military Surplus "Standard Hard Ball" .50 BMG FMJ Ammo. This is not Match ammo and is not the most accurate ammo available, but it will do just fine against hard targets out past a mile (1600 meters).
Caliber .50 BMG [Browning Machine Gun]
Bullet Weight - 709gr FMJ-BT [Full Metal Jacket - Boat Tail]
Muzzle Velocity - 2850 - 3028 fps
Bullet Drop Chart (in Inches)
100y/92m = +28.2
200y/183m = +51.9
300y/275m = +70.5
400y/366m = +83.6
500y/458m = +92.9
600y/549m = +89.3
700y/641m = +81.4
800y/732m = +65.0
900y/824m = +18.2
1000y/915m = Zero
1100y/1007m = -49.8
1200y/1098m = -112
1300y/1190m = -191
1400y/1281m = -288
1500y/1373m = -404"
Here's a bit of information about .50 BMG as they exist today. While they perform better than their WW2 counterparts, the WW2 ammo was not all that much inferior.
http://www.house.gov/waxman/pdf/50cal.pdf I. DESCRIPTION OF THE WEAPON
Fifty caliber rifles are among the most destructive and powerful firearms sold legally in the United States. These weapons, which weigh approximately 28 pounds, can be
used to hit targets over a mile away.
The original military purpose of these weapons was to destroy jeeps, tanks, personnel carriers, and other vehicles. Their tremendous force provided tactical advantages for armed forces by enabling a single person to disable multiple vehicles in a matter of seconds. The massive strength of these weapons also allowed them to be used against many objects other than
vehicles, such as bunkers, fuel stations, and communication centers.
The term “fifty caliber” refers to the size of the ammunition used in these weapons. The
diameter of these rounds is ½ inch (or “.50”), although their lengths vary from about three to six inches.
Fifty caliber rifles are “accurate” up to 2,000 yards, meaning they will strike the intended btarget within this range. These weapons are “effective” up to 7,500 yards, meaning that, although accuracy cannot be guaranteed, the round will cause its intended effect at this distance if it strikes the target.Their effective range of 7,500 yards is equivalent to 75 football fields lined up end to end—a distance of over four miles.
These weapons can penetrate several inches of steel, concrete, or other reinforced
substances, making them particularly effective against light armor. In fact, they are so powerful that many ranges used for target shooting do not have sufficient safety features, such as reinforced
backstops, to accommodate them.
One text, The Ultimate Sniper, provides an account of a Michigan ammunition dealer test-firing his fifty caliber rifle. According to this report, the dealer “test-fired his bullets at simulated wooden frame houses and found they blew completely through six houses—not six walls, six houses!”
In addition, The Ultimate Sniper states:
How can anyone exaggerate the .50-caliber performance?
Here’s a bullet that even at 1½ miles crashes into a target with more energy than Dirty Harry’s famous .44 Magnum at point-blank. But tremendous energy can hardly be surprising for a cartridge that’s five times larger than a .30-06—indeed, its 750-grain projectile is almost twice that of many elephant gun cartridges."
Clearly, our .50 BMG ammo that suddenly disappears from the calculations at about 1.0-1.3 is not realistically modeled.
Clearly, a 750 grain bullet that hits an aircraft at
1.5 MILES (that's out around range
2.5 in AH) with the muzzle energy of a .44 magnum (@ 850 ft/lb) will tear up the aluminum skin, slice hydraulic lines, crack magnesium or aluminum engine blocks, cut control cables and in general cause significant damage.
I believe this is true for all of the other aircraft ammuniton, from ALL countries, as well. There can be no doubt, for instance that the large caliber German ammunition has a similar "accurate" and "effective" ranges. I think we would find a similar situation with respect to the cannon rounds.
So, I'm sure ALL true "realism" fans will support the effort to convince HTC to go ahead and realistically model the realistic terminal performance of all the ammunition.
The artificial termination of bullet tracking by the program at or around 1.0 must be fixed!
Realism fans UNITE!
Thank you for your support!
