I don't know, when I'm with a rifle and I try to hit an enemy soldier, I almost always miss, I then try to play with the mouse wheel and change to like 300 meters of 500 meters but it doesn't change a thing...
Do I actually need to use this? what is the recommended ***meters setting?
Is there a way to measure the distance between me and where I'm aiming?
Thanks!
There is a whole lot that goes into making a long range shot. The flight time alone is an important factor. The sights might have been perfectly on target when you fired, but a half second later when the round arrives he has moved slightly and you miss. So some of your misses may actually have been perfectly aimed, but badly timed.
The bullet travels in a parabolic arc. It crosses the line of sight twice. If you draw a line through your sights out to the target, the bullet starts below, goes above for awhile then comes back down. This is why you have to have the sights properly adjusted for the range, or you have to offset your shot to compensate. They call it "drop", but as I said that is not totally accurate. For half of it's effective range (eg. 0 to 200m), the bullet is climbing, not dropping.
There is an exception of course, and that is if you are above the target. In that case the bullet will be accelerating downwards the whole time so it's a much flatter arc. This is why having the high ground is important. The higher above the target you are, the flatter and more accurate the trajectory of the bullet will be and less energy it will lose. It may even gain some if you are firing close to vertically down.
In any case though, if you have the zero (this means the bullet will impact on the aim point at the preset range) set to 200m and the enemy is 50m away, you actually have to aim lower to hit him. You may aim at his groin but hit him in the chest. With the same rifle and the same zero, if the target is 400m the bullet will drop below the aim point. So you'll be aiming at his head and hit him in the groin.
The amount of "drop" is determined by the bullet's properties and is different for every weapon and, in a small way, every shot.. You will always be more accurate if the range is set properly because you are not trying to aim at an imaginary offset point but directly at the target, and the sight is set to take account of all the easily predictable variables such as the drag of the bullet.. This is also why shooting a stationary target is always easier than shooting a moving one.
If the target is moving, the time variable really kicks in. You have to lead a running man by about 1.5 to two metres (if he's running straight across your front) if he is 300m away, AND you have to account for the drop. So if your sight is set to 100m when you try to do this, you have to estimate them both and you'll find it very hard. If it is set to 300m, you take away as many of the variables as you can, so now you only have to estimate the lead horizontally rather than in two dimensions.
Here are some tips:
Assume you will be firing at 100m targets more often than not and set your sights accordingly. Most battles occur within 100m on maps like these, so your weapon will be accurate most of the of time, even if it is permanently set to 100m.
If you see a distant target and it is not obviously much further away than someone at the other end of a football pitch would look, aim at centre mass and fire. Watch the fall of shot. If it goes lower than where you aimed, he is further away. If it goes higher, then he is closer. Switch up to the next setting if he is further away and try again. Watch the fall of shot.
Now if he is still further away, then repeat the process. Change the sight, take a shot, watch the fall of shot, adjust. By now you have your rifle set to 300m or the gun to 400m. if he is further away than that, don't bother. You're just wasting ammo. Try to predict where he will go and move to close the distance.
Now, say you changed from 100 to 200 and the fall of shot went from being below the aim point to above the aim point. This means the person is somewhere between the two ranges. The distance the round impacts from the aim point helps you to determine this. If it originally dropped an inch below but is now 5 inches above, then the person is closer to 100 than 200, for example. You can't set your sight to 150m, so now you HAVE to offset your aim point, but it's a much smaller offset than if you did it from a sight set to a much different range. You are only accounting for 50m of the drop instead of 150m.
What I find is that if you aim at the top of a standing target's head with the rifle set at 100m and the target is 300m away, you will hit it, but maybe in the lower body / legs. Another heads worth of offset above him usually gets the hit. But that may just be my eyes. You have to test it for yourself.
Also, do not forget shift-zoom. That is the most realistic view of the world you can get in game, and it makes it a lot easier to get 300m kills because it is zoomed in compared to the unrealistic level of zoom you run around with.
If the target is closer than 100m and you have the sight set to 100m, then even at 25m, the difference in impact point is negligible because the bullet travels so fast and the target is also a lot bigger, relatively. So just aim centre mass, or slight ly to the side of any direction of motion.
I also find that the best time to take a shot at someone is when they are trying to take a shot. As soon as you think they are trying to aim at something, fire. They are much less likely to move before the bullet gets there, if they are shooting at something. Machine gunners take note. Long sprays get you killed for this reason. While you are shooting you are not moving and you are easier to shoot. Keep moving. Even a few inches can mean the difference between being able to bandage and an instant kill.
