guide Complete Guide to Picking Ammo Belts (Updated May 2023)

[Pigeon_Of_Doom 0]

mosquito something or other

 

[AngelPiret 108]

On 14/02/2021 at 12:29, EpicBlitzkrieg87 said:

Yeah, almost, tracers have more FI-T and from my recent experience they're the best for damage output

So this list is not opinionated but based on your opinion? 

 

It's still a great list don get me wrong jeje

[Point_Nullify 0]

2 questions about the 20mm ho 5 cannon. Wouldn't stealth belts be more effective than universal since you get 1 more HEF-I for ever practice shot? Also is a practice shot the same as an incendiary or what is it?

[Tobiderbeste 0]

I have a Question on the 12.7mm Ho-104 why Universial and are Tracers on other bullets like AP-T  really do affect the bullet so much ?

[angelfishgod 63]

On 18/01/2021 at 11:46, henryk5pio said:

ITA Breda-SAFAT 12,7mm & 7,7mm rly not Tracer with API-T?

Right this doesn't make sense. If the API-T are the highest damage output then the tracer belt would be best since it is 100% API-T. If the IAI rounds do more damage, then the stealth belt has 50% IAI, compared to the recommended air-targets belt which has 33%.

I'm trying to understand the methodology here.

[NURFER 98]

how would I determine if a plane or a planes guns are early-war or mid-late war, is it based on the date the plane came into service? are 1941 planes considered mid-war?

 

(to the moderator, this might want to go as its own post in the Air Force academy section, but already posted here b4 i thought of that)

Edited July 25, 2021 by NURFERTURFER

[SturmWerwolf 793]

On 25/07/2021 at 12:14, NURFERTURFER said:

how would I determine if a plane or a planes guns are early-war or mid-late war, is it based on the date the plane came into service? are 1941 planes considered mid-war?

 

(to the moderator, this might want to go as its own post in the Air Force academy section, but already posted here b4 i thought of that)

Depends what type. For US M2 .50 cals the WT Wikia has a break down. You've also got the US M3 .50 cals (M2 with a 1,200 RPM Rate of fire) mostly seen on jets like the F84s, F-86s, G.91s etc. For the British you can usually see Hispano Mk.I, Hispano Mk.II or Hispano Mk.V.

 

https://wiki.warthunder.com/M2_Browning_(12.7_mm)#Vehicles_equipped_with_this_weapon

[Omarb13legends 11]

So I have found that for the 20mm M24A1:  Air Targets that the HEFI ammo is extremely weak and tends to give a lot of "hits" and "Critical" opposed to the armored target belts which are much better. Also for the B-20E cannon (Air Targets) The Default bet would be better as said the HEFI round is weak switching from FI-T and HEF is a better choice, test it and maybe you would reconsider the changes : )

[Flaky_9999 37]

On 05/01/2018 at 21:17, EpicBlitzkrieg87 said:

13.2mm Akan m/39: Air Targets/Stealth

13.2mm Akan m/39A: Air Targets/Stealth

nope buddy

 

13.2mm akan m/39 : ground targets / stealth

13.2mm akan m/39A : ground targets / stealth

 

air targets on them does not work so often

 

i have so much easy time pilot sinping everyone with the ground target belt on the swedish guns and same as the american ones

[IceUck 19]

I haven't played much since well before this guide was posted, and now it's over 3 years old, so I just wondered if this list is still up to date in 2021? 

[LincePatrulheiro 35]

On 31/08/2021 at 21:22, IceUck said:

I haven't played much since well before this guide was posted, and now it's over 3 years old, so I just wondered if this list is still up to date in 2021? 

For the most part the guide is up to date. In my opinion it is still valid in most batte ratings.

 

Also despite having been created 3 years ago the guide was updated on June 2020.

Edited September 3, 2021 by LincePatrulheiro

[Boeing_787_8 0]

Just in case, for the American 12.7mm turrets there is a early/mid-war belt and a late-war one (unless they both should just use Universal, than disregard this line)

The British have their own specific .50 cal belt on their late-tier Spitfires

Oh yea and for the ShVAK belts
There is a early-war belt and mid/late-war belt
The early ShVAK belts only appear on the I-16s with ShVAKs, these are the ones that uses Air Targets belts and has no Ground Target belts while the mid/late war ones have no Air Target belts

Oh yea and the Finnish have their own 12.7mm mounted on the Pyorremyrsky and VL Myrsky II which has different belts from the Swedish 12.7mms

Edited January 21, 2022 by Boeing_787_8

[EpicBlitzkrieg87 8,350]

On 23/08/2021 at 04:41, MonkeyMombo said:

nope buddy

 

13.2mm akan m/39 : ground targets / stealth

13.2mm akan m/39A : ground targets / stealth

 

air targets on them does not work so often

 

i have so much easy time pilot sinping everyone with the ground target belt on the swedish guns and same as the american ones

 

I've spaded all the J21s recently, I found air targets extremely good, sometimes even imploding on other aircraft. 

 

On 05/12/2021 at 03:46, Boeing_787_8 said:

Just in case, for the American 12.7mm turrets there is a early/mid-war belt and a late-war one (unless they both should just use Universal, than disregard this line)

 

I'm aware of the early and late war belts, I took those into account. 

 

On 05/12/2021 at 03:46, Boeing_787_8 said:

Oh yea and the Finnish have their own 12.7mm mounted on the Pyorremyrsky and VL Myrsky II which has different belts from the Swedish 12.7mms

 

Added

[SlowHandClap 519]

1 hour ago, EpicBlitzkrieg87 said:

 

I've spaded all the J21s recently, I found air targets extremely good, sometimes even imploding on other aircraft. 

 

 

I'm aware of the early and late war belts, I took those into account. 

 

 

Added

So is this guide based on your subjective experience with each belt, or have you looked into the datamined game files to see which belts objectively do the best damage in each scenario? 

[Avetorro 215]

On 04/03/2021 at 01:27, Point_Nullify said:

2 questions about the 20mm ho 5 cannon. Wouldn't stealth belts be more effective than universal since you get 1 more HEF-I for ever practice shot? Also is a practice shot the same as an incendiary or what is it?

In my experience stealth is ineffective coz I miss all the time. Depends how you look at it maybe?

[EpicBlitzkrieg87 8,350]

1 hour ago, SlowHandClap said:

So is this guide based on your subjective experience with each belt, or have you looked into the datamined game files to see which belts objectively do the best damage in each scenario? 

 

I've done both; whenever it was possible to look into datamined stats and when it wasn't, I just used 8 years of experience. 

[Boeing_787_8 0]

Can you add the best belt for the MG151 Turret?

[BleedingUranium@live 1,774]

Something I've been debating with myself for a while now is the best belts for Japanese 7.7mm guns. The recommended belts here are Universal for the offensive ones and Armoured Targets for the defensive ones, and I initially went with the same... but I feel like Default is actually a better option for both. Japanese 7.7s are pretty terrible no matter the belts, but I feel a slightly higher chance for fires is the better choice vs the nearly-worthless AP rounds of guns like 7.7s (or .303s, etc).

 

Seeing as the Tracer rounds are not named Incendiary Tracer, I assume they don't set fires, and as such here's a comparison for the relevant guns in terms of how much Incendiary and IAI rounds their belts have:

 

• Type 97 - Default has 2-in-6 (33%) with Incendiary and IAI, while Universal has 1-in-4 (25%) with only IAI. (Stealth, if you're comfortable with it, has 2-in-5 (40%) with Incendiary and IAI.)
• Type 89 - Same belts as Type 97.
• Type 92 (defensive) - Default has 2-in-6 (33%) with Incendiary and IAI, while Armoured Targets has 1-in-5 (20%) with only IAI.
• Type 97 (defensive) - Default is the same as the offensive version, while both alternate belts have zero Incendiary or IAI.
• Type 89 (defensive) - Same belts as defensive Type 97.

[Marc13Bautista 23]

Update?

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Marc13Bautista

[EpicBlitzkrieg87 8,350]

On 08/04/2022 at 08:25, Marc13Bautista said:

Update?

 

 

 

 

I'm back playing so I'll look into it

[Ghostmaxi 873]

Well what i use and really works for me is:

Mg 131: IAI 

Mg 151/15: Universal or Air Targets

Mg 151/20: Ground Targets or No Tracer

Mk 103: Common

Mk 108: Nightfight

[Marc13Bautista 23]

On 23/07/2022 at 01:03, EpicBlitzkrieg87 said:

 

I'm back playing so I'll look into it

 

I'm guessing FI-T is still king with the talk of it receiving a buff in one of these recent patches (for all Russian guns?) but I've no clue about 12.7mm and other guns. 

[EpicBlitzkrieg87 8,350]

6 hours ago, Marc13Bautista said:

I'm guessing FI-T is still king with the talk of it receiving a buff in one of these recent patches (for all Russian guns?) but I've no clue about 12.7mm and other guns. 

 

FI-T is still the best for Russian 20mms, and for .50 cals I recommend the belt with the most API 

On 01/08/2022 at 07:23, Ghostmaxi said:

Well what i use and really works for me is:

Mg 131: IAI 

Mg 151/15: Universal or Air Targets

Mg 151/20: Ground Targets or No Tracer

Mk 103: Common

Mk 108: Nightfight

 

For the MG 151/20 I don't understand your choice because you're omitting minengeschoß. 

 

If I want to fly the Ho 229 I pick armored targets because HVAP has been the best for the MK 103s for a long time, and for the MK 108 it mostly doesn't matter, but I think HEF-I (which you get with air targets) is pretty good. 

[Ghostmaxi 873]

11 minutes ago, EpicBlitzkrieg87 said:

If I want to fly the Ho 229 I pick armored targets because HVAP has been the best for the MK 103s for a long time,

Meh the Ap-I has extream angled penetration of 28mm and no tracer, the APHEI-T (which we will see hopefully fixed) has 5,2 Pent and the same Penetration.

And i dont care for 20mm Minengeschossem  the APHE works for me against ALL.

[BleedingUranium@live 1,774]

3 hours ago, Ghostmaxi said:

Meh the Ap-I has extream angled penetration of 28mm and no tracer, the APHEI-T (which we will see hopefully fixed) has 5,2 Pent and the same Penetration.

And i dont care for 20mm Minengeschossem  the APHE works for me against ALL.

 

German 20mm APHE is bugged and has literally no explosive filler, so that's one heck of a placebo. The APHE on the MG FF and MG FF/M are supposed to get the filler in the coming major patch though. Here's a list of 20mm fillers:

 

• Type 99 Mark 1, HEF-I - 5g TNT

• Type 99 Mark 1, HEF-T - 6.05g TNT

• Type 99 Mark 1, HEF - 11.98g TNT

• MG FF & MG FF/M, APHE - 0g TNT (7.8g TNT in Drone Age patch)

• MG FF/M & MG 151/20, HEI - 29.76g TNT

• Ho-5, HEF-I - 6.8g TNT

• ShVAK & B-20, HEF - 5.8g TNT

• ShVAK & B-20, FI-T - 6.36g TNT

• ShVAK & B-20, FI - 8.62g TNT

• Type 99 Mark 2, FI - 5g TNT

• Type 99 Mark 2, HEF-T - 8.5g TNT

• Type 99 Mark 2, HEF - 16.83g TNT

• Hispano, SAP-I - 0g TNT (4.35g TNT in Drone Age patch)

• Hispano, HEI - 9.28g TNT

• 20mm AN/M2, HEF-I - 18.34g TNT