I love duelling. I found this useful description of how duelling works.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/ ... pid=957922

When the duel screen loads, you'll see your enemy & his name. Afterward, the camera will slowly zoom in from behind you. At a certain point, the words DRAW come out & the screen goes dead-eye mode (orange screen color). Note: This doesn't mean your enemy has drawn yet (we'll get into detail about that later).

Feeding The Meter:
The meters on the right side of the screen belong to you (blue) & your enemy (red). Whoever fills theirs more will win. When it says DRAW, use the Left Trigger or down then up on the Right Stick to bring up your cross hairs. using RB or RT, you'll "paint" your enemy with marks which fill your meter.

Aim Small Miss Small:
WATCH THE CROSS HAIRS. They will flash red to white, reflecting Marston's aim... Simple phrase: Red=Dead White=Tight. Red will raise your meter a little, white will fill it 25% - 100% depending where you aim.

Hard Target:
Painting certain areas will fill your meter more. 2 can fill it to %100 & end the duel immediately if you paint 'em White: His Gun or Head. Just aiming at the head won't work, though. I've found you have to aim for the upper head area (forehead or eyes) for 100%. As for the gun, plain & simple: Perfectly paint his gun white with one shot. Painting his hand can fill your meter about 75% (you'll probably still win)

Disturbing the Piece:
You get +100 Fame & gain Honor by disarming him, but not all opponents can be disarmed. These are usually story-related character & some stranger-related ones (specifically the Wronged Woman & Eva in Peril).
A telltale sign is if you paint their guns / hands & your Meter does not rise. Even a badly painted gun / hand will raise your meter by small amounts. If this happens, make a mad dash for their foreheads!!

Timing Is Everything:
You'll notice that after DRAW comes up, the camera continues to zoom in. Drawing will stop the camera. Drawing first gives you more time to paint your enemy but at the cost of a smaller target area, making it more difficult to accurately paint a specific body part. Letting them draw first gives you less time to paint him, but a bigger area to paint.

Opponent behavior:
Everyone you duel is different in terms of Nerves, Speed & Accuracy. Unfortunately for experts, Rocktar didn't make them more varied (no ultimate challenge). But basically, Nerves is how SOON they draw, Speed is how FAST they draw & aim (this is the real timer for you), & Accuracy is how much their meter rises with each shot they place on you. These affect the duel: Opponents who are nervous will draw early, hampering their aim. These guys are usually easy as their meters will never be fuller than yours if you can place 1 good shot. However, if you get a nervous enemy with a fast hand, you'd better be quicker at placing that shot..

Tips Please:
Any duel can be won by mashing the RT, but to get those badass one shots watch your opponent's draw speed. This will give you an estimation on how much time you'll have to "wait & paint". The minute he goes for his gun you'll see how fast he is. For fun, on opponents who can be disarmed, shoot his gun then his hat.

i haven't played the multiplayer extensively yet as i'm obsessed with the Single Player, so i don't know if there are Online Duels. i hear there aren't. If they ever implemented them, this system would work extremely well (i think they should speed it up, though, cuz painting is a little too easy). Here's hoping Online Duels get implemented!

Thanks for the post! Much like MW2, I suck at Dueling too.