From what I remember from a video I watched, as long as you hit the ship within 20 second of it being destroyed you get the bounty, as long as you are also within a certain range. I am not sure what that range is. It does not matter if you only hit the ship a couple of times.
The video was on how a noob could earn 1,000,000 an hour in a basic sidewinder just by tagging
Make a million in your first hourI found this video long after I had gone past that stage, but to be honest I am not sure I would have used it had I found it, to me it's reducing the game to pure credit hunting and nothing else. However I do not see anything wrong in anyone else playing the game that way. One of his video's is how to make 15 mill an hour in a Python, I have never even watched that one, my Python makes much less and I am quite happy doing what I am doing.