Generally ride the stall buzzer, flaps out, without entering the buffet to maximize turn rate.
Turn rate is maximal at the minimum speed in which you can reach the G limit (blackout). If turn RATE is all that you want to maximize, use a low nose (below the horizon) to sustain your speed in the turn. The cost is lots of E and since the speed is sustained, you pay in the currency of alt.
I did have all flaps out each fight- thinking maybe the key is too stay faster, wondering what the conventional wisdom is, outside of not getting into a lufbery in the first place.
Flaps have only a minimal advantage in turn rate. They do help a lot with turn RADIUS, by acting as speed breaks and by allowing you to fly slower (sustained).
Many new pilots do not understand the difference between turn rate and radius. Both are important, so in most practical conditions, ignoring one and trying to maximize the other will make you loose. You need to start thinking in terms of more complicated geometry. You probably imagine a flat turn fight as two planes flying around a circle - that is rarely the case. Usually the two planes will be flying in two circles, each one on a circle of its own and the center of the two will be offset.
Now do the following thought experiment: you are chasing a plane at some distance "D" behind it, both of you are at the same speed in the same model plane. He goes into a max sustained flat left turn, and you immediate do the same. What will happen?
Well, you two are now flying in two circles where the center of yours is distance "D" offset from his. Initially, you will start to pull a lead on him and you will see him disappear under your nose - even though you are NOT turning faster or smaller! Lets say that you both continue to pull the exact same sustained turn. Then, half a circle later, he is on your 6 in a firing position exactly the reverse of how it was half a circle ago, even though he had absolutely no advantage in turn rate or radius.
So you see, our perception of "out turning" someone is very misleading. You can out turn or be out turned regardless of your turn rate or radius vs. what the other guy is pulling. Once you realize that dogfights are not fought in a circle, but in circle
s and that two circles do not have to be co-centric, you can have the next epiphany that those circles do not have to be horizontal. Take one step at a time though. Record some fights and view them with trailers on from external view zoomed out. You'd be surprised how the flight paths actually looked like.