I am havin' major trouble hittin' a movin' target at distance ... I either fire over the target or short or behind or in front but can hardly ever hit it ... is it a kind of guess when it comes to it or is it a correct way for trackin' and hittin' a movin' target !


Thanks always in advance

vK ~

Here the tutorials are your friend. It's really worth reading and completing all the tutorials for each vehicles, because there are some major differences in how lead is handled. At a guess, I'd reckon you are in the M1 and a trap for new players is forgetting to "dump lead" after each shot in that tank. This will cause you to miss because the targeting system is calculating from a previous target's speed and range. The M1 is different to the Leopards in this respect (how lead is handled).

The other thing can be indexing for the right ammo - if your TC has called for HEAT and your sight is still indexed for Sabot (or vice versa) you'll miss short or long. Remember too, that when ammo is changed you may have to miss short or long - when you are indexed for Sabot and your TC calls "Fire, fire HEAT", you should change the sight indexing to HEAT, but the round up the tube is still the Sabot that was last loaded. When you fire the Sabot round to empty the gun, the Sabot will go way long, because the sight is set up for the HEAT round the loader is busy loading.

Some of the other IFVs don't provide auto lead, but have sight graticles that help you to judge lead.

Hope this helps.

This link might be a bit of help in addition to the Bradley tutorials:

http://www.1stusvcav.com/M2_engage_mover.html

Thanks guys,

I'm gettin' better now ... I have one more question , how do you change the sight index for the different rounds ... I was doin' good except when the TC called for HEAT then all my shots were short so I had to do the Kentucky Windage thing and wasted several rounds because of it ...

Thanks again guys

vK ~

You change the indexing using the Insert and Delete keys if I recall correctly... I never look any more.

I thought those were used for loadin' a particular round ... either sabot or HEAT ... BUT do they ALSO change the sightin' for that round as well ?


vK ~

Brian Smith has pretty much covered it. In the M1 as a gunner, if the TC calls for heat to be loaded the loader will load heat. The ammo selection switch is in the gunners spot, so it up to the gunner to select heat or sabot. (Using the insert or delete keys) I can imagine this causes some rounds to go a zillion meters too far downrange in real life when the gunner forgets to switch from heat back to sabot. The Leo is a different story - the selection switch is automatically handled for you, so you dont have to worry about it.

Hitting moving targets at long range takes a lot of practice - the gunnery computer does not seem to track the fact that target is moving towards or away from you, it just pays attention to lateral movement. So, if its coming towards you and moving to the right as well, then you might want to lase the bottom right corner of the target.

It depends on your crew position. As a gunner, you simply have no authority in most vehicles to order the loader to load a particular round. Therefore, if at all, you just follow the orders of the (computer-controlled) commander by indexing into the computer whatever the loader has reported to having put into the breech according to the commander's orders (M1). In the Leopard 1 and 2 you don't even do that since the loader does the indexing for you.
It is only in the IFVs (Bradley, CV90, ASLAV-25) that you get to flip the switches to select the magazine. Even then you ought to follow the commander's orders, but at least you have a chance to disobey without fear of the consequences.

Now, if you are in the commander's place you can actually determine which type of ammunition is going to be used. So you "do" the loading, although, technically speaking, it's just that you give the orders and the rest of the crew simply follows them even if they may be tactically unsound.

I'm still learnin...

Thanks guys ... ALOT !


vK ~

A trick I learnt in gunning in Sb1 on the M1 Abrams is to listen to the loader intently as he is the one shoving the round into the breach.What Sean Sb says is correct.Especially if a target changes direction it will throw out the ballistics computer somewhat.Only way to get a feel of where to aim is by experience.Good hunting.

Thanks guys .. I'm gettin' the hang of it ... as you all have said and I never paid any attention to it until now is that when the loader says what round hes loadin' ... as the gunner you have to select the the corresponding sight either the delete or insert keys. I thought as the gunner if you hit one of those keys that round was loaded and I was wonderin' WHY my rounds fired never found their target ... makes sense now and I thank you guys !


vK ~

One little tip (learned it by watching Grim_Death one day) is to leave very little time between the lase and the fire. Once your cross hair is following the target at the same speed and you have the correct ammo selected (and whatever other pre-firing adjustments you need to make), you lase and hit fire immediately afterwards. It might only be a minor point, but when things are happening fast you want to make sure that the firing solution you sent to the computer is still relevant at the time of firing.

Definitely so. Only after about a second or one and a half is the tracking solution really stable (it's based on a moving average of the turret rotation speed (or, more precisely, of the sensor output which is located in the turret ring gearbox)). If you THEN use the laser range finder the turret will immediately apply the correct lead and you won't have a "wiggle" of the reticle. Don't get irritate by the seeming displacement of the reticule. Actually it still is where it was (on the target), it's just that your field of view has shifted.
If you start to "compensate" for this "sudden shift" you will add "bad samples" to the row of samples from which the moving average is being calculated. Therefore the crosshairs will start to wobble, and if you try to "chase the reticule" to bring it back on target it will make matters only worse.

Keep a steady hand before you lase, and fire immediately after you pressed the laser button. You will hit.

Thanks Ssnake ...

I DID find that out the hard way ... when the reticle would move I would adjust makin' things harder but I had no idea WHY that was happenin' until now ... you guys rock for helpin' a NOOB get his SIM on ;-)

Thanks again !

vK ~

The M1's primary sight's head mirror (prior to version M1A2) is only stabilized in the vertical plane. So, when the fire control system applies lead, the field of view MUST shift (and consequently the laser projected reticule will shift in the opposite direction to keep the crosshairs on target).

In some over vehicles the head mirror is stabilized in two planes, and often the reticule is not a laser projection but an etched glass plate in the optical canal (and therefore it stays on target all the time). It's not that the Leo 2 in principle does anything different, you just don't get to see it since the head mirror will "balance out" all divergence between gun axis and sight axis.

In the Bradley the sight is only stabilized in the vertical plane again, but since there is no lead calculation at all you simply need to shift the reticule on your own.

In Steel Beasts 1, I actually find it easier (with Sabot) to just use the good ol' method of manually aiming the gun in front of the target. I get good hits nearly every time. And it's more fun that way.

To each his own, though you're forfeiting some benefits especially when firing on the move.

Can you switch between the thermal and day imaging optics at the gunners station ... I've noticed that some scenerios e.g. like the tank range has the day vision and some or most scenerios have the thermal imaging set

Just wonderin' ... thanks !

vK ~

Yes, if neither is broken and if the vehicle actually has a thermal imager.

Thanks Ssnake ... NOW ... what key does that particular job ?


vK ~