Well,
I wonder if there is someway to see the hitboxes? It doesnt have to be in-game (aka im not looking for a cheat). But I want to know what my margin of error can be.
Generally I point the gun to the upper shoulder/chest area of my target because Im afraid if I point at the head I will miss by going over the target. Do hitboxes extend over the head of the target? Or only to the side?
Ive found if you aim for the face, even point blank, it hardly ever gives you the headshot. You gotta aim slightly towards top of head (eg, helmet and above by like 2mm) for a proper headshot. ETPro seems to have fixed this so you hit the face you hit the head… the way it should be. 
Dunno how to show hitboxes in game but…
Load up a demo with developer 1 set in console/command line and use either:
r_shownormals 1 and r_showtris 1
/g_debugbullets 7
This is a server side command, which requires cheats enabled (load the map with /devmap to enable cheats). This also means that you cannot turn it on for demo. So to really see it you need two computers, or a friend to connect to the game you host. You may be able to run two instances of ET if your system is good.
use
/cg_railtrailtime (on the clients) to adjust how long the hit boxes last.
I was about to disagree with you there but then I read the second part. Agreed. aiming for the top of the head is certainly the best way for a satisfying head shot. I love hosing across the foreheads of two or three enemies in a line and watching them drop . 
Nein!
/sv_pure 0
/g_gametype 2
/devmap <whatever map> [oasis, fueldump, battery, railgun, goldrush, radar]
/r_showtris 1
/g_debugbullets 7
/cg_thirdperson 1 [Thirdperson.]
/cg_thirdpersonrange 100 [Higher, Further away the View from player]
/cg_thirdpersonangle 180 [Ammount of spin round player]
Do the above in that order from main menu and you’ll be sorted.
This has been discussed many many times. Yes, the hitboxes are pretty fucked, but mainly the prone and in tank hitboxes.
I was on a server so long once that everyone eventually left and it was me and an AFK enemy, and I had fun experimenting on him, testing distances, number of rounds to different bodyparts, etc. I remember you can shoot slightly off to the side of the head and still get a hit, where it is quite obvious you’re aiming past him. It’s because the hitboxes are basically just that; invisible boxes around a player. The D3 engine will have per-poly hit detection, which is going to KICK ASS.
In the Quake 3 mod I was in charge of our lead coder spent many days implementing something along the lines of a poly-specific hit detection. I forget the actual details (so don’t bother telling me how I’m being silly, it was something like poly-specific, basically better than the invisible boxes at any rate ) but it was quite neat.
