What Weapons Can Take Down a Helicopter?

[Taggert1313 37]

I have heard people say that only certain calibur rounds can hurt helicopters. I was wondering if it was true. If I had a makarov and all the ammo I wanted, could I break a helicopter? Or is that damage reduced to zero?

On a related note, are there any hacks that make vehicles invincible? I saw some hackers flying around in a helicopter and my attempt to kill them had no effect. They were stationary hovering 130m away from me, and I opened up with a M249 SAW and got 170 rounds off into the helicopter before I died and the helicopter was fine. Granted I'm sure many of those missed, but most of them had to have hit. So is the SAW not high calibur enough or did I just wound it?

[magicool 115]

in theory it is possible to take down a helo with any weapon even with empty tin cans

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

Contrary to the many "I took down a heli with a Makarov" threads, it's actually bloody hard to shoot one down. As far as I know (not that I've tried) it's best to use NATO rounds aimed at the main rotor. I'm sure someone who actually knows will be along in a second with some more accurate information.

[Hydra (DayZ) 472]

7.62+ is best, possible with 5.56 if accurate.

[sirfluffkillington 1]

It's just Hueys in DayZ isn't it? Assuming so (based on time in Arma 2) 5.56 rounds and lower probably won't be much use against the body of the thing, you could try to put rounds through to kill the pilot but I reckon you'd be wasting time.

All I can say for sure is anything firing .50 rounds will damage the body, and can penetrate the windshield to kill the pilot.

[avaint4 30]

I took a heli down with an AK a few days ago. If you can land a good shot on the pilot then you can take a heli down with just about any gun.

To elaborate, there was a heli with at least two guys in it that I could see and they were flying pretty low around Elektro shooting at people. It was a decently populated server (25-30 people) with a good number of friendly folks running around Elektro. I was in the school house and the heli was hovering about 20 meters or so above the hospital shooting at somebody on the coastal side of the hospital. I fired about a dozen or so shots at the gunner and got a confirmed kill. The heli started to fly away and I shot 6 or so times at the pilot, but couldn't tell at the time if I landed any shots. The heli flew over the school house and from a window on the other side I watched it fly low but dangerously sideways over the small hill at the base of sniper hill and then heard a very loud boom. I then saw the death message for one person. I'm assuming I critically injured the pilot with one or more AK shots, possibly knocking him out. Anyway, it was pretty cool to watch and was totally unexpected. I thought at best I'd run them off but at least give the guy they were shooting at a chance to get some better cover.

The only other time I've taken a helicopter down was with an AS50 and those anti-vehicle rounds. It was one shot, and the thing practically dropped out of the sky.

Edited September 9, 2012 by avaint4

[Zelarn (DayZ) 0]

Buddy of mine blew up some Huey with ~150 M249 Rounds. Besides not all of them hit (some guys landed near us and we decided to rush in, so he sprayed an the Huey Location from around ~30meters) the thing blew up in around 30secs of shooting.

[CM LEGION 29]

Spammed an entire NATO AS50 mag into one, You could technically use anything, you just need ALOT.

[woots 82]

Took one out yesterday with AS50 / NATO rounds. Used a clip but I think one good shot in the engine would do it.

Edited September 9, 2012 by WooTs

[Sol (DayZ) 132]

Contrary to the many "I took down a heli with a Makarov" threads, it's actually bloody hard to shoot one down. As far as I know (not that I've tried) it's best to use NATO rounds aimed at the main rotor. I'm sure someone who actually knows will be along in a second with some more accurate information.

Hahaha damn, Fraggle... this will certainly work but it's overkill lmao. Take it out with an anti-vehicle round, easy single shot take-down...KABOOM! xD

You can be a little more modest and still get a good fairly fast result.

A Lee Enfield (easy to find at common/general spawn locations like supermarkets, apartment buildings and houses, and sometimes even industrial buildings) will put down a chopper with 3-4 good hits on the tail rotor.

Any of the AK family guns will drop a chopper pretty fast as long as it's not miles away in the distance. Less than 150m you can sink one in less than a single mag (maybe 15 shots), again shooting at the tail rotor.

I have actually downed a heli with a G17, but it was after it had been hammered by my M4A1-CCO with about 6 mags starting from about 550m... it flew in over the top of me as I emptied my mags into it, then I switched to my G17 after I ran out of mags. I got about 5 shots in wh-BOOM! I was pleasantly surprised and remember yelling some profanity while laughing historically at what had just occurred.

Essentially anything is possible... you don't know what the repair/damage situation is like on the heli to begin with. This needs to be taken into account. Dealing with a 100% repaired helicopter would obviously take more damage to sink than a partially or severely damaged chopper. They may have snagged on some power lines or bumped into some other shit, and already be limping home, though they are most likely fully operational and out to hunt you.

I have seen a video (probably on YouTube) of a guy that somehow headshots the pilot in a passing heli using a handgun (I remember it being a makarov) - (the guy was on top of some building in Cherno and the heli buzzed down almost level with the buildings roof line) that has two or three other guys in the back... it spirals out of control and slams into the side of a hill less than 2 seconds afterwards. It was hilarious. I guess anything really IS possible.

~Sol

[privatewolf 59]

As a ArmA II player with field experience rather than just DayZ, I've seen a fireteam of four men with a M249 saw suppress a UH-1H Iraquois(only chopper in DayZ at the moment) and kill the pilot, thus making it crash to the ground along with the enemy transport. Or you can just use a AT4 when it's hovering, I've seen my squad leader do it once, it was awesome

EDIT:

Shooting the tail rotor or even main rotor with small arms will only make a small dent, not more, not less, unless if you're using something with a heavy caliber that is. I would think a .50 BMG would make a difference but a AKM taking down a chopper with 15 rounds by shooting the tail rotor? False. I've been in an extraction where the chopper was just getting shot to bits by small arms(AK-74) and not even damaging the tail nor main rotor.

Edited September 9, 2012 by WolfSixNiner

[diddi 35]

Me and my friend fired a couple of rounds of AS50 and Saw rounds, no effect.

[Sol (DayZ) 132]

EDIT:

Shooting the tail rotor or even main rotor with small arms will only make a small dent, not more, not less, unless if you're using something with a heavy caliber that is. I would think a .50 BMG would make a difference but a AKM taking down a chopper with 15 rounds by shooting the tail rotor? False. I've been in an extraction where the chopper was just getting shot to bits by small arms(AK-74) and not even damaging the tail nor main rotor.

Don't know what to tell you bro, because it happened. It was in ARMAII, and not DayZ, but there shouldn't be any difference at all.

~Sol