They do happen loser, im a constant victim of them.
D1.2 on b17's 80c, flying parallel (trying to get in front and HO from 12 hi) buff sprays tracers like a madman in my direction, 1 ping and BEWM, entire wing and engine of opposite wing blown up.
im sure that .50's which by all rights must have a serious dispersion at that range and angle, can perform better than a 30mm at d100 from a perfect 6 position.
When I fly my B-26, I dont use tracers. I just spray in the general direction, see if I get a ping. In most cases, the very first burst I hit with tears a plane apart. 190's and n1ks are the only ones that i've seen that require a long burst of hits to kill. My theory is that the first ping you hit with that does the killing damage, the other hits you see in your FE are lagged effects, just as when you HO a fighter in a chog and you wont see the other plane explode until after the merge, the buff guns have the same lag.
When in my fighter getting pinged by a buff the first ping turns me into a wingless,tail-less, burning cockpit, on the way down I hear two dozen pings. Buff pilot reports seeing my plane lit up like a christmas tree. So the buff gunner sees my plane a-ok getting pinged like hell and then break into pieces, when in my FE first ping breaks apart the plane and get all the other hits later. Since its my FE that determines the damage, its the first ping that kills.
