I learned manual targeting back in 2005 from
Paul Wasserman's site, and it was an immediate success. Heck, I even donated to his site out of gratitude. After my first successful manual attack in SH3 I ran around the block in my underwear, I was so dang happy.
I did however need to print out all forty pages or so of the guide, but it was well worth it. I studied it for a few days with pen and graph paper.
Now it's second nature. I surprised myself tonight and took out 3 ships in a convoy line in SH4; I use only manual targeting.
I saluted Paul each time a ship went to Davey Jones.