[Fish40]

Everyone has given some great advice, and I basicly follow all of the above. If you have radar, your job is much easier. I use the map contact "on" option. There is some debate on the realism of this, but if you notice, there is no realism hit weather you check this option or not. I used to do all the legwork myself, but that's not realistic either. The captain would not be manning the radar/sonar stations doing the target tracking. That's what the crew are for, and that's why there is no realism penalty.I won't go into the actual plotting procedure, because the posted tutorials say it all.

If radar is not installed on your boat, you have to do alot more searching. Be sure to situate yourself along major shipping routes, especially if you're useing the RSRD mod. This mod specializes in historic shipping traffic, and routes. Every couple of hours, if not every hour, do a sound search. I've cought many a target by picking up their noise from a long distance. If you do pick up a target, track the sound to give you a general idea of it's direction in relation to your boat. When you have a general direction, surface and "lead" the target at full speed, so as to cut it off. Run on the surface for a good half hour, and if contact is not made, dive and do another sound check. Determine if the sound is getting louder or not, and check direction again. Surface again, and continue the hunt. Once visual contact is made, hopefully at a safe distance, things get interesting. I use a downloadable, printable AOB/Course Finder made by Captn. Scurvey. I believe the thread is stickied above, so you could see what I'm talking about. This device is a great help in visualy determining a vessel's course, and AOB. The AOB mod by Nicolas, mentioned above, is basicly the same thing, but it uses the TDC dial. I use both.

Next, you need to determine the target's speed. If map contacts are on, mark the target's position on the map. Wait three minutes, and mark his position again. Draw a line and connect the marks, and that's the general course. Measure the distance between the marks, and that's a good value of the speed. IE:, 700yds traveled=7kts. This is all in the tutorials. Now you need to outflank your target, by heading on his course out of visual range, and get ahead of him. Once you are a good deal ahead, steer a course 90 degrees to his, to cut him off at a right angle. Submerge, reduce speed, and let him come to you. Keep updating the range and AOB until he is within fireing range (for me, 2000yds max!) and fire away! Make sure to set up the torpedoes beforehand, and open the outer doors before you fire.If you did it all correctly, you should hear some pretty loud booms in the end, unless of course the torpedoes were duds! But that's another story. Well, that's how I basicly track and intercept targets. Hope this as well as the tutorials give you some idea on how it's done. Practice makes perfect! Good luck, and good hunting!