You often see claims by people that they "pinged" some guy and didn't even get an assist when he is killed.
So how do you know you have pinged the other guy?
It seems to me that when you are close to the enemy you see hit sprites from other attacking aircraft. In my case you won't see tracers, so I might be pinging the guy in front when the friendly guy behind me is spraying tracers perhaps thinking he is scoring hits? - It's a double edged sword of course with me being a lousy shot - It may be the guy spraying is getting the hits!