All of my builds are done with the IR in the barrel and flash behind it. I would think real tanks would fire from a cover position, if at all possile. Also, the CQB is not affected in any way. Having it set up this way is much more realistic than drilling a hole and mounting it in the mantlet or clipping it on a barrel. I only had a problem one time, when someone drove into the tank head on and broke the mantlet...but then, the tank was useless for combat, no matter where the emitter would have been....