[I'm goin' down]

[First you can sweep the gun to follow the bird and when you're satisfied with the lead angle you can pull the trigger at any time to kill the cute birdie. That is what the PK does.

Secondly, you can aim at a point ahead of the bird, holding the gun steady, and time the shot for when the duckie is at the precise position where the gun aimed at that point will hit the bird. This is how Dick O'Kane and John P Cromwell work with the PK off.]

First, let's talk ducks. If you have never seen a waterfowl migration, you are missing something. I was at the Delevan refuge near Willows, CA years ago in the middle of the winter migration (refuuge capacity is 7 million birds!) and saw millions of birds on the ground, in the air --everywhere. They made so much noise you could not hear blasts from the horn on my car. It was as if every airplane in the world was landing at, or flying over, O'Hare at the same time.

I have seen the weather change so quickly that the birds thought night was falling in mid afternoon and began landing. Once in the midst of a snowstorm that followed sudden rain, sleet and hail storm geese were at 20 -25 yards altitude, ducks at 15, and Swans (as big as B-52s) at 10. I was so shocked I forgot that I was carrying a shotgun. (Swans are federally protected, but must be as big as Thankgiving turkeys.)

Leading with a shotgun is a good idea, and so is sweeping the gun. But that will not work with a blue or green winged teal, the comedians of the duck family. They zig zag (i.e. change course), do loop to loops, and when you are scanning the sky for birds they will cartwheel into a pond at 3 or 4 feet, landing 5 feet from your blind and will start dunking and bathing as if it is summer. They are tiny compared to a fat mallard, and are funnier than hell when darting to and fro. When their wings are spread they display and set of blue or get feathers mid wing, hence their names. Not as pretty as the wood duck, but they change direction as fast and often as a destroyer changes course.

p.s. I am in the midst of manual targeting hell. The war department is going to stop supplying me with boats and start chargng for torpedos. My best moment was when I caught a destroyer sleeping. It did not move for 20 minutes. Neither did my boat until I slowly came to periscope depth and fired two shots at zero degrees. The destroyer awoke, but it was too late. It moved less than a boat length and the first torpedo sunk it. Most of the time though, my periscope is spotted, and my boat is depth charged to "death."

When I submerge when setting up for a shot, I do not think my radar continues to track the target on the attack map. I am running the standard game with only the 3,000 yard compass mod. If radar does not work when I am at periscope depth then using the Dick O'Kane method becomes difficult and hazardous to a boat's health as there is a good chance it will be spotted when checking the bearing of the target, and destroyers are usually on it quickly, while the merchants begin evasive manuevers.
Any suggestions? Maaybe I have this wrong, but I think this is what is happening.