Secrets of shooting marks
It so happened that after the Second World War, fire training, before that the basis of training a soldier, began to lose its former meaning. It was assumed that in modern combat, the main defeat of the enemy will be inflicted aviation and artillery, as well as guns, rockets, BMP machine guns and Tanks.
Combat practice
In the poem by the British intelligence officer and writer Joseph Kipling “The Ballad of the West and the East” there are such precise and characteristic lines: “He fired a shot once, and fired two, and a bullet whistled into the bushes. Shoot like a soldier, "said Kamal," let's see how you ride. "
The infantrymen were assigned the task of suppressing enemy grenade throwers. To solve it was supposed not so much due to accuracy, as due to the high density of automatic fire. It is not by chance that the AKM manual states that the main type of fire for it is automatic. Such installations did not contribute to the education of apt shooters.
The author knows motorized infantry, tank crews and artillerymen who, during two years of military service, fired less than a hundred machine gun shots. And this is not today, but in "stagnant" 1980-e!
In the Airborne Forces and special forces units, the situation is usually better, but even there it was far from ideal. What is clearly evidenced by the experience of hot spots. This is how Alexander Grigoriev, GRU special forces officer, describes one armed clash in Afghanistan.
16 March 1987 was destroyed by a nine-member militant group. The fire on them was conducted, it would seem, in ideal conditions - from top to bottom at an angle of 25-30 degrees from a distance of 50-60 meters.
Success factors: moonlit night, the presence of night vision devices and extremely weak opposition of the enemy due to the suddenness of actions of special forces soldiers. Despite this, each of the scouts spent at least two or three stores, that is, about nine hundred rounds of ammunition per group, which amounted to one hundred for each killed “mojahed”. Tellingly, the battle was fought not by recruits, but by well-trained soldiers, the group consisted of four officers.
Meanwhile, the consumption of ammunition - one hundred units per killed enemy - becomes almost perfect for any war. For example, in the First World War on the Eastern Front, the monthly requirement of the Russian army for cartridges was 250 million pieces. Thus, more than 12 thousands of bullets were fired at every enemy that died or died from wounds.
The Afghan experience is fully supported by the Vietnamese. American Colonel David Hackworth testifies: “In a sudden collision with an enemy, our soldiers, shooting with M-16 rifles, overwhelmingly missed the fully visible and stationary target. And it doesn’t matter whether the shooting was conducted on the move or from an ambush - the results were almost the same: five shots for six shots.
Such cases can be counted more than one hundred. The number of misses significantly exceeded the number of hits, despite the fact that usually shooting was carried out from fifteen meters or less, and in some cases from less than three meters. Shot on the spot became a legend.
Regarding the dependence of the effectiveness of fire on the range, there is no evidence in the analysis of six large and approximately 50 small operations that when shooting with M-16 rifles from a distance more than 60 meters, at least one partisan or a fighter of the armed forces of North Vietnam was killed ".
We emphasize that both experts talked about trained fighters. Why, then, do shooters confidently perform all 5 exercises on the shooting range, and sometimes they cannot hit the target at a very “childish” distance in real combat?
Blame is psychological stress. “Most often, inaccurate shooting was caused by the fact that the fire was unaffected and was carried out in a hurry. The shooter in excitement took too high, “- said Colonel Hekworth.
Motor skill
It is well known that the human psyche undergoes numerous changes in battle, however, few people realize how deep and destructive they are. According to statistics, only 25% of fighters use technical skills obtained as a result of preliminary training in real combat conditions. In combat, the human psyche changes, as if under the influence of a powerful drug.
Everything is changing - the perception of information, the decision-making mechanism, sensitivity to pain. There is a "convulsive" grip weapons. The so-called “tunnel vision” appears - the fighter perceives only the enemy as a source of immediate danger, he is not able to catch and understand any other information.
The activity of the left hemisphere of the brain responsible for abstract-logical thinking is suppressed. A person becomes unable to adequately assess the situation and its development, to consciously apply the skills obtained as a result of training.
Therefore, the only way out is to apply technical skills without the participation of consciousness. Performed reception or a sequence of techniques should be an automatic reaction of the psyche of a fighter to a change in the situation. For this, the technique being studied must become a motor skill.
It has been empirically established that in order to turn an action into a motor skill, it is necessary to perform it 5000-8000 times. This idea is not new. Back in the early twentieth century, the forefathers of Russian military psychology wrote that the principle of automatism should be the basis of combat training of personnel. But in fact, this idea is implemented in practice only in special divisions, where charters and instructions are openly reserved.
The basis of live firing systems is the desire not to overcome the natural instincts of a person in danger, but to use them to increase the effectiveness of a fighter's actions.
The main principle is the unification of education. In training, you only need to do something that is useful in the stressful conditions of a real fight. It is necessary to avoid that which can contribute to the assimilation of wrong motor stereotypes. You should not work out several different options for action, as a reaction to the same change in the situation. Under enemy fire, it’s not up to choosing from several options the optimal one, and the seconds spent on making a decision can be fatal.
It is not necessary to make any changes to the usual equipment and weapons, its state and ways of wearing. For example, it is absolutely not recommended to keep a pistol in the lap during the day and in the evening in a shoulder holster; at home, keep a pistol with an empty chamber, and on the street carry a weapon with a cartridge in the barrel. This may lead to a search (in battle!) Of a pistol where there is none, or try to charge a pistol locked with a safety catch.
And do not expect that in a stressful situation, you can figure out what is happening! In a real battle, it’s not up to performing any actions meaningfully. The fighter does only what he managed to work out in training until full automatism.
Good results are obtained by applying the basics of auto-suggestion. An important feature is that the formula used must be positive. You say to yourself “I do (something)” - even if for the time being it is not possible to carry out a proper technique correctly. In no case can not apply negative formulas like "I do not pull the trigger."
Readiness scale
The psychological aspect is closely related to the problem of readiness for a fight with the enemy. Indeed, a person is not able to constantly be in readiness of the “state of a compressed spring”. On the other hand, a surprise attack gives the enemy great advantages. Thus, a change in the level of combat readiness should be an unconscious reaction of a fighter to changes in the environment.
In the West, there is a color scale to indicate successive steps to increase alertness.
White - the lowest level of alert. You are completely relaxed and do not pay attention to the environment.
Yellow - you are in a situation of possible threat. You are relaxed, but carefully watching the environment.
Orange - you have noticed an object, possibly representing a danger. You begin to make a plan of possible actions in case of a threat from the object, closely monitoring its actions.
Red - a signal to the transition to the "red" state, usually serves some kind of action of a suspicious object. Now you are convinced of his hostility. Perhaps the situation will require the use of weapons, and all your body systems are on alert.
The action plan has already been drawn up, and now you are waiting for a signal that will give you the right to use weapons, for example, the appearance of an armed enemy. It is very important to determine for yourself this signal (“trigger button” of the reaction) in order to save yourself from having to make a decision at the moment of the attack of the enemy.
All this is a psychological basis that is to be put into practice.
Get used to the weapon
So, let's move on to this stage of preparation. The resulting machines are reduced to "normal combat." From this point on, they do not surrender to the armory! Weapon is around the clock with a fighter. It must be taken literally - either the machine is not released from the hands, or worn in the “on the belt” position. The goal - a fighter should get used to the weapon, as part of his body, it should not interfere with it under any types of daily activities.
Discharge control - permanent!
In the field, this can happen as follows: the fighters stand in a circle so that everyone can control the others. Machine guns with the barrel directed upwards. Then, all synchronously several times, they retract the bolts, press the trigger and put the weapon on the fuse.
All attempts to "play war" should be stopped in the most severe way. It is difficult, but - possible. Wearing in a convenient position for shooting, store replacement, daily cleaning and lubrication, disassembly and assembly - all this should be at the level of the subconscious, like manipulations with a spoon-fork. It must be remembered that complete disassembly should not be allowed - AKM (AKS) does not like this.
The fighter must daily, several hundred times, throw the machine at the shoulder with the aiming at the target. At first it is correctly applied so that the butt plate directly fits into the notch of the shoulder, the cheek touches the butt, the rear sight and the front sight are exactly aligned.
Particular attention should be paid to the correct stand: legs - shoulder-width apart, right shoulder raised, shoulder girdle tight, body half turn to the target and slightly tilted forward. In this position, you need to be for a few minutes so that the muscles "remember" the action.
When the rack is fixed, the target is marked (some point in space at the same level with the shooter), the eyes close, the weapon smoothly rises to the shoulder in the direction of the target. At the moment of touch, the trigger is pressed and the right eye is opened. "Smooth" front sight must "hold" the goal. This movement should be gradually accelerated, while maintaining a smoothness ...
As a rule, after three or four regular exercises, the pillar and front sight reliably “hold” the target, and no more than 0,5 seconds are spent on the “shot”.
Gradually, the exercise becomes more complicated: the goal is now at different heights - left, right and back. As soon as the eyes catch the target, they immediately close, the body turns, the machine gun is raised, and so on. From slow to fast. Ways of turns for each fighter are individual, to whom it is convenient.
Exercise, as a rule, is practiced during the "typical situations" in tactical-drill exercises. "Shooting" is carried out in motion. The main requirement - the movement should not be interrupted even for a moment. No, even the shortest stops.
Complicated this exercise by connecting acrobatics: somersaults, rolls. You can not freeze in place for a moment.
Every movement should be smooth, “shooting” should not interrupt it. If someone has targeted you, then the slightest stop is one hundred percent death. Continuity of movement gives a chance, and accurate shooting increases this chance.
After each stage, it is advisable to conduct practical shooting. In this case, a lot of fire is not required: 15-20 shots with a single fire is enough to consolidate the skill.
Targets of no more than a soccer ball are set at different distances - from 15 to 150 meters. The shooting at them was initially conducted by tracer bullets, so that every scout could see the trajectory of the bullet's flight, its height. He should automatically, by eye, determine the distance to the target and “see” the aiming point - depending on the distance.
I don’t speak specifically about the installation of the sight here, because during the transient battle no one simply looks at the rear sight, and the enemy, as a rule, does not give the opportunity to properly aim.
All these stages take place, as a rule, in fifteen or twenty days, or rather days, since the process is not interrupted for a minute. And he does not interfere with compliance with the daily routine. All the planned classes do not interfere, but on the contrary, help the speedy acquisition and consolidation of weapon handling skills at a subconscious, muscular level.
The trainees themselves are very surprised when, on the tenth or fifteenth day during the test firing, they fall into the jar from under the UZRGMs at a distance of one hundred meters with their eyes closed. This fact gives, firstly, self-reliance, self-esteem, and, secondly, it introduces an element of competitiveness among the soldiers.
Group coordination
The next and much more difficult stage is the firing coordination of the group. Among other things, it is also a very risky event, because there may be random hits on its own, unexpected ricochets ...
To prevent this, it is necessary to work out the interaction within the group to complete automatism. Train up to the "seventh sweat" until the guys start feeling each other literally with their skin, without calling out to a friend and not looking at him.
All typical group constructions, actions in one or another situation with variants should be worked out until complete automatism. It is difficult, but quite achievable. Many lives depend on the level of training of fighters, including their own. So you need to form such an understanding! Both as a part of subgroups, and in group as a whole.
A scout, throwing up a machine gun, must constantly monitor that his "shelling" sector does not fall into his own. Periodically, you need to submit the command "Freeze!" And point out errors in detail. As part of the group, allow only those scouts who have achieved the full automaticity of all maneuvers to engage in combat shooting.
... Somewhere in about a month from the beginning of training, it is possible to achieve a normal group maneuvering, a fairly tolerable shooting (80-90% shots hit the target), three times to go to combat exits - after all, during the war, no one will allow camp.
Now comes the most difficult stage of learning. Namely: to teach people not to shoot. My personal experience shows that this is the most difficult of the above. This skill is especially important for intelligence units.
What is intelligence? They passed quietly, saw the object, reported the coordinates, and also quietly left without moving either a blade of grass or a leaf. The first shot - the illumination of the group, detachment, and possibly the whole idea of senior commanders. Therefore, the shooting need to develop a serious, responsible attitude. Here we apply the principle: “I don’t see, I don’t shoot, I shoot, I hit.”
I don’t say, of course, about “find and destroy” tasks. In such cases, of course, the intelligence officer must act decisively, boldly, creatively - and if you really have to shoot, then do it faster and more accurately than the enemy.
But we must remember that the scout is not an infantryman. He does not have with him boxes of ammunition, grenades. All that is - worn BC, three hundred, a maximum of six hundred rounds, six - eight grenades. And that's it! Replenish it at the expense of the enemy - this happens most often in film and adventure literature. So, you need to spend ammunition economically. Experience shows that the most optimal fire regime, with rare exceptions, is a single, two shots at a time.
It is enough to make one or two hits to reliably disable the enemy.
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