Im sure this has been done before, and for that I appologize if im repeating stuff, but it seems as of late, the last part of any enemy I should be aiming at is the head. I put my crosshairs on ppl that dont even know Im there, hence cant react, and aim it straight for the head, and they usually turn around and kill me. Also, where the hell do the rounds go if you shoot in bursts? I usually try to pull the gun down thinking recoil is gonna make the barrel jump up, but again, keep firing and not hitting. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please feel free to post and I am about willing to try anything at this point. Thanks all.

How many bullets constitutes one of your 'bursts' and have you tried practicing with the guns by aiming at a non-moving target (say bots in zombie mode where they just stand there, or an object with a way to clearly see the bullet decals)?

Every gun has it's own recoil patterns so even if you're adjusting for recoil, you need to do it in such a way as to compensate for that specific weapon.

Thanks, I didnt really consider that every gun has its own recoil, so that helps some. I also play on a bot server when noones on the n00b server and when I play there I go 36 and 6(last night), but I come on this server and its like I should be aiming as if one of us is lagging. I dont get head shots when I think I should, and pull them off when I didnt even think I hit the guy, or girl, so not sure, I guess Ill just have to fiddle with my aim a little. Thanks though, you gave me something new to think about.

When you play vs actual people, you have to take into consideration that the server is trying to mediate between the information being sent by each client (player). Therefore, what you see isn't always what you get because it all depends on who's information reaches the server first, because even though the server compensates a little for more laggy players, it's an imperfect system.

Take for example me. The other night I had a great game on de_cbble, with 8 1-deags and several AK 1 or 2-shot headshots out of 16 kills. I also had a ping that would fluctuate between 60 and 400. I still got these kills because I paid more attention to the sound of the footsteps of the people running by and aimed at the sound while maintaining a head-level crosshair and compensating to time my shots to how the lag was behaving.

You could try taking pot shots at random, not trying to kill the people but to see how the server reacts when they get hit by your bullets and keeping in mind how you need to shoot (if you need to aim ahead of their movements or hit them dead-on). This will be different for every single player you encounter because they have their own issues and sometimes if you aim right on them it won't happen but if you aim in front of them while they run, you somehow hit them. I've even seen shots where I had to shoot just behind a player as they moved in order to make a shot.

As for your own movements, Valve has finally nerfed the accuracy of pistols while strafing so just like with most other weapons, you need to stop for a nanosecond while you click the fire button. You do this by strafing in one direction and then tapping lightly on the opposite strafe key. Simultaneously, you shoot a bullet.

That is a fantastic way to break that down, I totally understand what your saying and can honestly say, never thought of all that, or just when I saw a super laggy player, but like you said, everyone has some sort of lag. I cant tell you how much that explanation helped me visualize what you were talking about, and it makes total sense. Thank you so much, as I will start adapting my play and hopefully pick up the K/D ratio... hahaha. Thanks again, I cant tell you how much I appreciate it. So glad I found this community.