Dealing with the ammo limit

I've been trying to get some more hours with heavy lately. To give you a good example of how much I have neglected the heavy, I have put 100+ hours into the game. I have played the heavy for 93 minutes. Ouch.

So I have reached 6 hours with heavy over the past 2 weeks. One problem I always have is how hard it is to keep a klling streak going. You rip through your ammo so fast, that you can be delgated to the shotgun really quick if you are not careful. I often find myself destroying 2 people, then runing out of ammo. Granted, the heavy can get back ammo from the people he kills, but he's slow, so it can take him a little while to pick them up. Assuming an ungrateful teammate doesn't snatch up the ammo without realizing it. Even if I do pick up an ammo box, it only gives me 40 shots. Bearly enough for 1 kill, in my opinion. The heavy and the pyro are the only 2 classes with this problem, so I guess I wasn't really prepared to deal with it. But does anyone have any tips to make me more conservative with my ammo?

Pyro, burn and retreat, you shouldn't be on a sustained burning rush for so long that it tears up all your ammo.

Heavy, dont forget you have a shotgun, typically I pull out the minigun to take out crowds only.

know your classes.
---scout---if there's a scout running at you move your crosshairs a little bit in front of him because he's so fast. shouldn't take much to bring him down.
---soldier- gonna take a beating before he goes down, if you get him. don't go it alone against him unless you got someone reliable with you.
---pyro- pretty easy to take down without too much ammo. if he gets close to you though you're gonna have problems
---spy- will go down the easiest if you see him. if you suspect something or someone yells "spy" stop your gunning and take a quick look around. chances are he's going for you.
---medic- relatively easy alone, remember he regains health ( but it's pretty slow). if he's teamed up with a soldier you need backup or a medic of your own. 
---demoman-- hate these guys when i play heavy. they''ll dump a few nades and run away and find cover fast. don't chase em unless you're in a very enclosed space where you have time to rev up your gun
---sniper- problematic for heavies because they can take you down with 1 shot to the head. if you spray some bullets their way only the really confident (or  maybe stupid) snipers will stay on their ledge 20 feet away from a heavy. they don't have a lot of health and without their rifle not much of a threat.
---engineer- if he's a decent engy on defense he'll be near a sentry. listen for the beeps and poke yourself around the corner. you might get hit a little but you have a lot of health. find a medic, spy, or a few soldiers to help with the gun. take the engineer first if you can. they're usually wacking their sentry or running around with schematics out so they're be oblivious to you sometimes. some engys rely entirely on their sentry. use that to your advantage
---heavy- your evil twin. only go directly after him if you're close to ammo (dispenser) and you have a medic or full health.  Whoever has better aim one on one will walk away. if you kill a heavy you're not gonna have a lot of ammo left. pick your battles.

don't underestimate your shotgun either. you can jump with it and maneuver a bit (much faster than when you're firing the minigun) If you're defending learn where the health and ammo spots on the maps are and work your strategy around them and learn how long it takes for more ammo to "respawn"    if all else fails punch away with the fists of fury. i've seen heavys punch and kill atleast 3 guys before going down

make friends with medics and engineers...

don't be afraid to go on a suicide mission to try to thin out enemy numbers if  your team is mostly alive and doing well

remember that if your deal out significant damage and take down some enemies or buildings before dying you've done a decent job.

One tip when playing Heavy that I use all the time, You can let go of the fire button. 99.9% of the time that i do that i dont run out of ammo.

Oh(Real tip), and when you go around a corner have your barrel spinning.

You can spin your barrel with out firing the weapon you probably know that but don't use it enough. I don't have much of an ammo problem when I play heavy so I don't really know where you are comming from, I naturally stay around areas with ammo (ammo is all over the damn place) and in a 24 person server there is enough dead people to keep your gun full enough.

If you let yourself get in too many long-range battles, you will run out of ammo. Try and peek around corners to determine if anyone's close enough to make a good target.

I know the spin the barrel crap. I've heard it a million times. Even the freaking game tells it to you.

The shotgun is not your enemy.
Look at the server kills.

You'll notice that out of my Heavy kills(I have hundreds, but still I fall short of Echo Mending), I have about 200 kills via the shotgun.


The shotgun is a great weapon to use. Don't be afraid to use it.  Trust in the shotgun, it is your friend.


Try to stick to close range fighting with the minigun. It's also great for shooting DOWN at someone from above, such as on top of the Crates in the middle of Granary, on top of staircases shooting down at people oblivious to your presence.

Last thing:: know where the ammo crates are.  Like if you're in the middle of Granary and you hit empty, whip out the shotgun, pelt and retreat, pelt and retreat. Use the shotgun to cover yourself as you get to the ammo crate.  If you do not know where every health pack and ammo crate is on any given "stock" map then you need to learn.  The only ones that might give you trouble are hydro...I'm still trying to remember half that crap -.o     

I usually work defensively unless I can get medic support and I stick closer to the Engis so I can get ammo and health if there arent many ammo/life packs near.  I also like to take charge of checking for Spys if it is a "defending" situation.  Sure, that Pyro does it better, but I dont trust em, they get bored and run off.  As a Heavy near a Dispenser you have Endless ammo and dont even have to move to check for Spys just spam the area every little bit.

Heavies IMO arent good offensively......without a Medic.  Sure you can be, and I have seen some really good ones, but they are rarely without a Medic.  If I am going to be without a Medic and Offensive I want a Soldier or Demo and their mobility to get in and out of action.

Most my Heavy deaths are from Spys and Snipers....hard to avoid either if they arent stupid.

well, its all about picking it up from the enemies u killed or just remembering where ammos appear around the maps.  I also enjoy keeping engis company and continue bothering them about dispensers

I hate using the shot guns while i am a heavy because, heavies are slows plus the firing rate of the shot gun is slow.  It makes me feel helpless when all of sudden the enemy is not afraid of you and runs around me while my health slowly drains down to 0 (Im talking to you scouts)