Author Topic: What does gun convergence do? (Read 363 times)

WidoSlyr · « **on:** May 18, 2002, 07:54:25 PM »

I am new at this.......Maybe It would help me hit more people if I understood this?

Urchin · « **Reply #1 on:** May 18, 2002, 08:16:08 PM »

It is not really that complicated, but it is kind of hard to explain. Lets assume you are in a typical U.S plane, with 6 .50 caliber machine guns mounted in the wings (3 in each wing). If your guns were not calibrated, they would all fire in a straight line. This means at any given range (be it 300 yards or 600 yards or anything else) your bullets will hit at about the spacing of your guns. So if your guns are 6 inches apart on each wing, you'll have 3 streams of bullets coming from one wing, then three streams of bullets coming from the other wing. This means you'll never really do any concentrated damage- if one set of guns is tearing up the fuselage of the enemy plane, the other set of guns is missing past one wing.

When you 'calibrate' the guns for a certain range, you are basically making it so the bullet streams cross a certain distance away from you. So if you have your calibration set to 400 yards, all 6 guns are sending forth a stream of bullets that crosses the path of the other guns at 400 yards. That way, if the enemy plane is 400 yards in front of you, you put your gunsight on his fuselage and you are hitting with 6 guns to the fuselage, instead of maybe 3 (or none) if you didn't have your guns calibrated.

Calibration isnt so important for nose mounted weapons, since they will always be hitting close together anyway, but it is critical for doing damage with wing mounted guns.

WidoSlyr · « **Reply #2 on:** May 18, 2002, 08:24:35 PM »

Thx:D

xHaMmeRx · « **Reply #3 on:** May 19, 2002, 10:33:40 PM »

Here is a write-up I did on Gun Convergence. Since writing it, I've decided that AH does not model any range adjustment. I just haven't gotten around to changing the page yet.

HaMmeR
netAces.org - Info, Tactics, and More!

=GHOSTS=....You Will Believe

SlapShot · « **Reply #4 on:** May 20, 2002, 09:17:15 AM »

Great article HaMmer ...I remember reading it when I first started.

Also, what I do on planes that have multiple gun sets is to stagger the convergence from the most outside gun set to the most inside gun set. The most inside gun set is set to the farthest distance and the most outside gun set is set to the closest distance.

Example: F6 Hellcat ... 6 x .50 cals (3 on each wing)

Outside gun set: 375
Middle gun set : 400
Inside gun set: 425

To me, this provides mutiple crossing convergences, and I have found it to be very effective.

Lephturn · « **Reply #5 on:** May 21, 2002, 06:47:58 AM »

I used to do the staggered convergences as well, but after some switching back and forth, I found all guns converging on the same point to be a better choice for me. I fly the Jug, and rely on snapshots quite a bit, so I traded some flexibility in terms of shooting ranges for killing power at convergence. I spent a month on each type of setup, and personally I get more kills with all .50's set about 275 or so.

YMMV, test the different setups yourself and see which one you prefer.

jonnyb · « **Reply #6 on:** May 21, 2002, 11:40:31 PM »

Another thing to take into consideration is ballistics. Since the examples above have been with a standard US loadout of 6x.50 calibers, I'll stick with that. The rounds being fired from the .50 caliber machine gun are far lighter and faster than those of the cannon birds. Hence, the damage from them is based more off of kinetic energy than pure mass.

Quite simply, if you have your convergence set to something like 500 yards, you'll be wasting a lot of ammo, because even though all 6 streams are hitting the enemy, they aren't packing a very large punch. If you set your convergence down to 300 yards, you are packing more than twice the punch, and will easily saw off your target's wings with a short burst.

Hope this helps

jonnyb