You must carefully study the instructions for this type of your device and follow it, coordinate your further actions.

There are general characteristics that you need to consider when installing, configuring and using, and we will learn about them.

Installation

The main requirement for installation is height, since a low installation is the best option.

When installing, make sure that the front sight does not interfere with the operation of other elements. Be extremely careful and careful when installing, follow the instructions in the instructions clearly.

When assembling, the correction mechanisms are set to the middle position, if you rearrange the optics from another gun, then you need to set everything back to the middle position.

To adjust this distance, move it all the way. Grab your gun and take a firing position. Then move the sight towards you when you see a clear image, secure the position and see further instructions.

If you have a short-barreled, then the setting is as follows: take the gun in your hand and stand with your hand extended forward. Then start adjusting your scope. Everything affects the focus distance and the focus of the aiming mark.

After you have fixed the optics in a longitudinal position, we set it clearly along the line of the barrel. Then take a shooting position and adjust the axis very precisely so that the line (vertical) coincides with the vertical axis of the weapon. After that, very carefully fix the screws.

Focusing

Having fixed your weapon on a reliable support, point the lens at the target, it should be monotonous, light. Look through the eyepiece, at a distance of 10 cm from the eye you will see a clear aiming mark. If necessary, achieve the clarity you need.

It is necessary to adhere to the following rules if the Leepers scope has an eyepiece with a retaining ring:

• Taking it in hand, turning it counterclockwise, it is necessary that the retaining ring does not touch it. Then, to push back, you need to rotate clockwise.
• With farsightedness, turn counterclockwise a couple of turns, with myopia - a couple of turns clockwise.
• On a light background, look through the eyepiece, now the image is blurry and very different from the previous one. After, rotate until a clear contrast image is achieved.
• Then lock by rotating.

When there is no retaining ring, then all adjustment takes place on the eyepiece. If you are not satisfied, then just adjust it.

Shooting and its types!

Zeroing is divided into three types: preliminary - cold zeroing, which requires a collimator sight; traditional shooting; the final one is shooting in groups of three shots.

Cold shooting. Many laser devices are used for it. Before making horizontal adjustments, you need to make horizontal adjustments to the base of the bracket.

Traditional shooting. Attach the weapon, remove the bolt and squint so that the center of the target coincides with the axis of the bore. After you adjust the correction mechanism to match the center with the center of the target.

The final one is zeroing in groups of 3 shots. The weapon is fixed. Fire one shot. If you hit a couple of centimeters further than your target, then you should adjust the mechanism so that the center coincides with the center of the target. Then fire three shots in succession. When adjusting, lean towards the center of the hits received.

Leapers optical sights have different correction mechanisms. But, despite this, each model has clear correction intervals, which are perfectly marked for understanding.

Leapers s riflescopes are great for those who want to adjust the image range, especially when changing weapon models or choosing new ammunition.

How to use an optical sight is detailed in the instructions that come with it, so do not be lazy and read. Do not use as binoculars, and do not look through it at other people or objects. Remember, safety comes first.

Shooting - wonderful way keep yourself in proper shape and develop habits that will ensure stability and accuracy. To learn about the tricks the pros use to hit the target, read on.

Steps

Part 1

Holding the rifle steady

Work on position stability. In the military, soldiers who are in marksmanship training must hold their rifle steady enough to see the scope straight ahead, even if the hammer falls on the barrel. Once you have mastered this foundation of basic technique, you should be able to hold your weapon in a stable position.

• Practice different positions to find the one that works best and is also the most comfortable for you. The sitting position is comfortable for many, but uncomfortable for shooters with weak hips.
• If you are right-handed, your "shooting hand" is right and your "non-shooting hand" is left and vice versa.
• However, the dominant eye is also a major factor. As a general rule, you should be leaning on your shoulder on the side of your dominant eye to fire rocket weapons. This is true even for cross-dominant shooters - people who can shoot both left and right. right hand regardless of the dominant eye.

1. The hand must be in a stable position. The rifle must lie in a V-shape between thumb and forefinger. The handle should be light, like a bad handshake, and the wrist should be with straight fingers lying naturally around the forearm.

   • The hand should hold the rifle steady, like in basketball when you need to stabilize the ball with your hand. Most rifle support should come from your shooting style and your position, but even when not shooting, your hands should be steady.
   • Make it a rule that the hand should always be kept away from the range of the rifle and projectiles.

2. Place the stock firmly on your shoulder. Make sure it is well secured on the shoulder, on the fleshy part of the armpit below it, or on the collarbone.

   • Keep your rifle steady even though the force of the recoil must be dampened by your whole body and do not put it back on your shoulder, as this will make the next shot painful and inaccurate.

3. Grasp the handle on the firing side. Depending on the kind of rifle you're shooting with, you'll either be gripping the entire pistol grip or the shotgun clutch. Regardless, your hand on it should be more firm than on the non-shooting side, it should be more like a business handshake. You must pull the rifle back, placing it firmly on your shoulder. This ensures that when you're ready to fire by pulling the trigger, your rifle won't move or lose its accuracy.

   • Your trigger finger should be straight. Don't move your index finger around it until you're ready to shoot. Place it on the outside of the trigger guard or use it with other fingers to grab the magazine.

4. Keep your elbows down and in, although their position will depend on whether you are seated or standing, but all positions require your elbows to be under the rifle to support its weight. Your elbows and hips should be in line, extended towards your center of gravity.

   Relax your neck and let your cheek rest naturally on the magazine. This position can be obtained when your nose is almost glued to the loading handle on some rifles. In this pose, your eyes are guaranteed to align for a natural viewing angle and you won't have to use your peripheral vision to pick up the target.

   Relax your body. Proper technique requires you to be able to relax your body and maintain a calm breathing rhythm. You must hold the rifle firmly without being tense. If you use your muscles to hold a rifle, they will eventually tire and your accuracy will fluctuate. A comfortable relaxed position is The best way shoot accurately.

   Part 2

   Shooting accuracy

   1. Check your target point. After orienting yourself in the general direction of the target and in a relaxed stationary position, the rifle should be pointed at the target without any effort on your part. This is called your "natural target point" and is a sign of proper technique.

      • When you relax your muscles in a stable position and your hand is on the magazine, you must expend some strength to get into a comfortable body position for direct vision of the target. This is a sign that you need to change something yourself. Change your position and rearrange yourself properly.

   2. Align the rifle scope. The base of a rifle's diaphragm (i.e., there is no volume on the rifle) is often called the scope. It consists of two parts, a front sight or ball near the point of the rifle's barrel and a hole about halfway up the barrel. Before you worry about hitting your target, you need to line up the ball in the fold to ensure the rifle sees the target. Any misalignment increases the chance of missing the target as the bullet leaves the gun.

      Focus your attention. Align your gaze with the fly. When you try to balance your elbows and knees and breathe evenly, as well as holding firm and focusing on a tiny ball in a small hole at a distance of 45 meters, you can fail. What are you focusing on? Short answer: the ball is not your target! Make sure you are in the right position, relaxed and focused on the ball.

      • If you're in the right position and your scope is level, your target should be the hole, and although it will look blurry, focusing on the ball ensures you maintain proper posture while shooting, resulting in more accurate shooting.

   3. Check your "picture of vision". A proper aimed shot has a front sight, a diaphragm, a target and your eyes are perfectly aligned (or cross out the target if using a sphere). This is called a "vision picture". Move the focus back and forth between the target and your gaze for a few seconds, ensuring everything lines up.

      • After all, the more you practice with a goal, the more you will be able to do it without changing your focus, which tends to strain your eyes. Practicing proper cheek and magazine position and scope alignment will ensure that your eyes don't strain too much as you aim for the target.

   4. Control your breathing. Shooting is a skill in using millimeters, you will see how your breathing affects your target as you train your eyesight. But it is important to breathe naturally and fully. Holding your breath causes discomfort and inaccurate shots. In your breathing, learn to notice the moment immediately after exhaling, when you have completely emptied your lungs of air, but before you become uncomfortable, you need to breathe. This is a fraction of a second, but this is the most stable and ideal moment to pull the trigger.

      Pull the trigger. All your careful alignment and positioning will be in vain if you pull the trigger like you're shifting gears. Instead of pulling the trigger as if your finger had joined the fist to complete a solid business handshake, you pull the trigger too gently.

      • Before pulling the trigger, many arrows swing to avoid recoil. This must be avoided and held right at once, since you have got a comfortable rifle and this the only way shoot accurately. Take more time to tune in and learn to relax. This is the foundation.

   5. Hold on to the end. Just like in basketball or golf, correct positioning and balance must be maintained until the very end of the shot. Dashing your head up to see if you hit the target is the best way to hit the milk. Keep your muscles relaxed, cheek pressed against the magazine, stock close to your shoulder, and eyes focused on the front sight. A few breaths and you're ready to either test your mind or shoot again.

   Part 3

   Development of accuracy from any position

   1. Fire from a prone position. Make a line with your foot and elbow that points 25 to 30 degrees to the right of your target. Place the rifle in the crook of your shoulder with the muzzle pointing towards the target. Hold the stock high enough on your shoulder so that your head stays upright as if you were standing. Use your left hand to bring the rifle up to the target level.

      • The prone position is the most stable of all standard firing positions because the shooter's elbows and the weight of the rifle are supported by the ground. You can also use a bipod, sandbags, or other handy support device.
      • Be careful with hot shells. Because when you lean over, the hot cartridge case can bounce off your skin or fall on your body, but this applies to shooting from any position.

   2. Shooting from a seated position. In this position, you will sit with your legs crossed, oriented 90 degrees towards the target. Rest your elbows on each knee, keeping your back as straight as possible to improve your accuracy.

      • This position is very comfortable for some shooters, but breathing is greatly accelerated. Maintain good breath control when shooting in this position.

   3. Shooting from a standing position, feet shoulder-width apart. Keep your hip slightly forward, indicating the direction of movement towards the goal. You want the weight of the rifle to be evenly distributed over both legs for the most accurate shot, so keep your elbows down and your weight balanced on your hips.

      • Attach the rifle securely, forming a straight line of support with your body. The rifle should be comfortably balanced on the upper body, requiring only minimal muscle use.

   4. Shot while kneeling. Professional shooters use something called a "knee roll" to cover the ankle, but you can also use a rolled-up T-shirt or other support. Get on your knees, keeping your ankle in a comfortable position on the firing side straight vertical to your knee. You can rest with the rifle on your elbow or knee, or use your knees as a modified standing position to hold the rifle. Either way, keep your elbows down to support the weight of the rifle.

      • If you are resting your elbow on your knee, make sure you avoid unstable bone-to-bone contact. Instead of resting your elbow on your knee, try placing your knee against your left triceps a couple of inches above the elbow, and then, with minor changes, find the most stable and most comfortable position for you.
   • Knowing the recoil of a rifle is essential for accurate shots, and you will be able to act harder once you evaluate the rifle correctly.
   • Strong winds can also affect the target. Again, this effect increases with distance.
   • If your shots miss the target, but you are sure that you did everything right, your rifle may be out of balance. Either fix it (see: How to Aim Properly) or, if you can, change your aim.
   • distance compensation. Your gunsights are usually set for a specific range of distances, optimized for the ammunition of the pistol intended to be used. Different loads are designed for some specific distances. 22 lr is not as accurate at 90 meters as 7.62x34 is and not as accurate as 223 is etc. Take this into account when aiming. What works on a target at 45 meters will not work on a target at 90 meters. This deflection increases the range from the target.

   Warnings

   • Always, always, always handle your weapon safely. Using weapons carelessly can be fatal. Always make sure your gun is loaded, even if you think it's not. If you're not 100% sure how to handle a gun safely, read our WikiHow article on firearm safety before continuing.
   • Never leave a loaded weapon unattended. Lock the bolt or cylinder in the "open" position if you must leave your weapon. Thus, even if you pull the trigger, the bullet will not fly out.
   • Most rifles, in particular semi-automatic weapons, are designed to eject spent cartridges from the side of the pistol. If you are left-handed or right-handed, make sure that the shells do not fall out of your face.
   • Never press your eyes close to the frame mounted on the rifle when shooting, because the impact can damage the orbit of the eye and can at least reward you with a black eye, and at worst, hospitalization.
   • Always use hearing protection and eye protection when using firearms.
   • Observe safe methods ranges and rules at any time.

At first glance, it seems that the longer the barrel, the better: you can disperse the bullet to more high speeds without increasing the charge of gunpowder. But this is not so - the speed increases only up to a certain length of the barrel. In the beginning, it increases by 6-7 m/s for every inch up to 30 inches. Up to 34 inches - within 4-5 m / s per inch, after forty - 3 m / s, and so on to zero. As a result, the practical length is limited to 34 inches. “For ultra-long range shooting, we recommend to our customers barrels in caliber .408 no larger than 34 inches,” says Lobaev. - For practical purposes, 30-32 inches (maximum 74 cm) is enough. A longer barrel makes sense only for demonstration and record purposes.

Measure - half hit

An ultra-long-range rifle, which typically costs around $20,000, is not the most expensive part of the complex. To begin with, it is not easy to accurately measure the distance at 2 km. And you need to do this very accurately - just at the end, the trajectory of the bullet is very steep. The required accuracy is provided only by a laser rangefinder. Hunting ones are not suitable - they are designed as a last resort for distances up to 1500 m. You have to use the military. The most affordable offer (from ¤7000 in Europe) is the Leica Vector IV, which allows you to measure distances up to 4 km. The Leica Vector 21 (up to 12 km) is even better, but it’s hard to even imagine how much it can cost. The store will definitely not offer it to you. If there was enough money and connections for the 21st Vector, you can think about lidar - a laser measuring wind speed at a distance. If not, you need a weather station, for example, Kestrel 4000NV for 14,000 rubles. Current, maximum and average wind speed, air temperature, reduced temperature, relative humidity, Dew point, Atmosphere pressure, height above sea level, atmospheric density - without all these data it is simply impossible to shoot today.

Self-loading cartridges 408-caliber with solid-pointed bullets Lost River J-40 Utra VLD

Third Eye

Without a scope, nowhere, and the choice here is small, the main problem is the insufficient consumption of the amendment. In human terms, the trajectory at ultra-long range is so steep that most scopes simply do not have enough adjustment turret travel. You can, of course, put special rings or "spacers" for them, but then it will be impossible to shoot at short distances, for example 300 m - there will not be enough corrections in the other direction. And in order to avoid “hemorrhoids”, then for shooting at 2 km it is optimal to have a sight with a correction rate of 150 arc minutes. This is the Leupold Mark IV M1. It is possible to use Night Force 5.5-22 IXS, but it, having an amendment rate of 100 minutes, needs a special bar. The ideal option is almost any model of US Optics SM, which comes with 200 minutes as a base and can be expanded to 300 minutes. Although it is almost as difficult to take such sights out of the United States as, say, a machine gun, in our vast expanses they are not often, but they are found.

No math anywhere

The most important piece of equipment for a high-precision shooter is a ballistic calculator. This is a program that calculates all the ballistic parameters necessary for shooting, including at ultra-long distances. There are no recommendations here, for shooters choosing a calculator is akin to choosing a religion.

Basically, all calculators are divided into two groups: tabular and mathematical. The former are based on the measurement of specific shot data (most often with the help of a Doppler radar). This technology is used to make the most popular ABC calculator in the USA, which is used, among other things, for shooting with 408 caliber. This approach has a disadvantage: if there is no fired cartridge in the database, it is impossible to accurately calculate ballistics, which is especially critical for self-loaded cartridges.

The spread of hits may seem large. Exactly until you find out that the shooting was carried out from a distance of more than 2 km

The latter use a mathematical ballistic model, and different programs are needed for bullets of different geometries. For example, there are programs for calculating the ballistics of ultra-low drag bullets.

Who's in charge

The shooter also needs a very good spyglass with at least 60x magnification for number two. Why, when you have a scope? Indeed, for 2 km, holes in the target cannot even be seen through a telescope. Here we come to the most interesting: why in Western films snipers go in pairs and why the second number is the main one. But because it is he who calculates the distance to the target, evaluates the wind, meteorological parameters, conducts all ballistic calculations and gives the first number ready-made corrections. Pulling the trigger when you have everything on the scope is not so difficult. Checked.

But most importantly, the second number has a truly mystical ability to see the flight of a bullet, because, as already mentioned, it is impossible to see a hole in the target. The fact is that in the good optics of a telescope, a vortex flow is visible, which the bullet leaves behind. It is difficult to see him, but possible. This requires an extremely accurate location of the observer relative to the shooter: strictly along the axis of the bore and slightly higher. Ideally, if the reticle in the tube and the sight are the same, then the second number after the first shot immediately gives a correction to the reticle.

The sniper engages in shooting to develop consistency. Being very attentive, he looks for ways to bring consistency to his every little task, because he knows that consistency means accuracy, and accuracy means consistency. If his rifle is set to constant, and he sees the same aiming pattern every time he fires, he uses the same trigger control, breathing, body position, and a dozen other subtle sub-skills, accurate shooting is the inevitable result.

To make the difference between "correct shooting" and excellent workmanship, you must hone the skills and shooting techniques taught in this chapter. Whether you trained with a rifle in the service or never fired a rifle prior to joining your department's combat unit, you will benefit from what is written here.

shooter attitude

Approximately half of the excellent quality [of shooting] you get is the result of your attitude towards shooting. It can both help you and hinder your development.

I had some problems with training shooters because of their self-importance. You can be proud of what you do and how well you do it, but when it gets to the point where you start to justify your mistakes or hinder the further development of your own mind, it is no longer pride, but blind conceit. The sniper's surest, fastest way to hell is to ignore his own shortcomings. As Dirty Harry once said, "A man must know his limits" if he wants to change them.

Surprisingly, some men have convinced themselves that they can be "natural" shooters with little or no practice. Maybe as kids they watched John Wayne movies. Conversely, I have found women to be excellent marksmen because they don't care how accurately they can "naturally" shoot. Never forget that rifle shooting is a rapidly lost skill and can only be developed and maintained through practice shooting.

The first step forward in regards to shooting is to let go of any emotional reactions to your shooting. Become a detached, objective observer of your own progress, allowing you to analyze mistakes and find the right solutions. Be honest with yourself. The Olympic-level rifle shooters I know are the "slow-walk, slow-talk" guys who don't lose their temper but think before they do anything.

Accept the conflicting understanding that your entire shooting career will be spent fighting for perfection, but absolute perfection is not achievable. Never exaggerate your own abilities; take into account not nine good hits, but one miss, and imagine what led to it; then apply your conclusion on the next shot. Competition is great, and I applaud all competition winners, but once you start thinking you're "the best," you'll go downhill towards Lucifer. Constantly ask yourself: “What can I do better?”. Compare your abilities not with someone else's, but only with your own.

Write all the details of the shooting in your notebook, study them between shooting practices and use them to plan shooting for subsequent shootings.

The role of the observer

Whenever you shoot, your lookout should be close by to watch and instruct you. Conversely, when he shoots, you become an observer. Together you are a sniper team.

The role of the observer is not emotional support. When you fire, he is 100 percent busy with observer-specific tasks such as range and wind estimation, mirage reading, target detection and evaluation, observation of firing, hit confirmation, and suggestion of corrective action.

But since this is practice shooting, the observer also acts as a mentor. It helps with kickback and descent control exercises, monitors your breathing, sees if your body position is stable and constant, and so on. As a mentor, he must be honest, yet diplomatic, patient and understanding. In this way, mutual trust is built and this forces him to focus more on his own body position, breathing, handling the descent, etc., as he must become more sensitive to such things in order to train you.

From time to time you will have to shoot without a partner, but whenever possible, it is better to have him with you.

Ways to improve shooting

The quality of your workout will never exceed the quality of what you put into it. To get started, never shoot anything other than match grade ammo - military or commercial - or you'll just be wasting your time. Sometimes you have to shoot bulk and tracer ammunition, but just to get familiar with them, not for serious marksmanship training.

If you keep a small supply of ammo in case of an alarm or come back from the range with some ammo left, this ammo is suitable for your shooting practice. In this way, you replace your working ammunition and constantly refresh it. Naturally, both training and working ammunition should be from the same batch.

Mentally and physically focus on only one shot - this is the concept I call "this is the first shot in the rest of my life." Next, we will describe ways to develop concentration on such lesions from the first shot. In this regard, try to count each shot, evaluate where it hit and enter the results in the sniper book, even if your observer had previously reported the exact location of the hit.

A sniper book like this does wonders for helping you understand your rifle, your scope, your ammunition, and how you use it in a variety of situations. Keep a book constantly and write down every shot. Use this information to complete the 3" x 5" sniper ballistic data card described in the previous chapter.

Dry shooting as often as possible is the most convenient, inexpensive, and fastest way to improve your shooting.

I must place special emphasis here on the significance of shooting at known ranges versus shooting at unknown ranges. The first takes place on ranges with highly visible spacing and targets usually lined up at 100, 200, 300 yards, etc. On ranges with unknown ranges, targets, usually camouflaged or rising, are spaced at uneven distances, with no indication of how far away they are. A sniper needs both types of marksmanship training.

Practice shooting at known distances confirms how accurate the characteristics of the bullet trajectory compensator (BCDC) are, develops consistency and confidence in estimating distances, and prepares the shooter for shooting at unknown distances. Clearly, shooting at unknown ranges hones target detection and range estimation, which are critical sniping skills. Both types of training are important and necessary.

Circle target practice, which starts every shooting session, must be conducted on ranges with known ranges. The following exercises, which add realism and tension, should be done on ranges with unknown distances.

During practice shooting

Since you cannot pay attention to all aspects of shooting at the same time, you should focus on only one aspect in each training session, such as trigger control, breathing, shot tracking, and so on. Periodically change this special emphasis on each shooting, and also involve an observer in your training.

The FBI recommends that police snipers practice at least monthly in order to maintain an acceptable level of marksmanship, which is a good minimum level. If you can shoot more often, do so by all means. I have never known a single good shooter whose performance would have deteriorated due to a lot of shooting practice.

Once you've learned the basics, you don't need to shoot more than 20 shots in a shooting session. Fire slowly and count each shot just as you would in real life. Never allow yourself to slide into mindless banter.

Spend half your time on the range doing actual shooting practice at known distances by shooting at targets with circles. The second half of each shooting session is devoted to drills that, together with accurate shooting, require patience, judgment, and self-discipline from the sniper. You should never be able to fire more than one shot at a target while doing these drills.

The table provides detailed recommendations for different categories of shooting training, such as day and night, from different positions, by different types of targets, and so on. Of course, they are not the ultimate truth in shooting training, but they show the need to think through the details of a real training program.

Even if you have an excellent CCTP on your scope, you will still need to sometimes use offset to compensate for the distance. This is because it is much faster to attack multiple targets at different distances by moving the aiming point than to constantly change the settings of the CCTP. Military scopes fitted with a Mil-Dot reticle offer the ability to take out [dots], but since they are also equipped with RTCC, this feature is rarely, if ever, used. The ballistic tables in this book show exact values for a variety of popular sniper ammunition, including .223, .308 and .300 Winchester Magnum calibers.

Practice the way you act

Your practice shooting won't do you much good if it doesn't accurately reflect how you actually operate in field conditions. Rolling out a comfortable shooting mat and donning a custom-made shooting jacket have as little to do with sniping as they do with an expedition to Mars. But there are also other ways, less obvious, but just as unrealistic.

I have seen some snipers wear strap-on pads on the range to reduce recoil. Will they have such pads in the field? And what about headphones? It's better to use earplugs that fit directly into your ear so you don't develop a bad fit during practice shooting - and you end up with the same hearing protection as you would in the field.

Wearing civilian clothes instead of fully equipped tactical uniforms is also far from reality. How will a bulletproof vest, or a tactical vest, affect the position of the body [when shooting] if you do not train with them during target practice?

Long range shooting for cops

Since in reality the average police sniper fires at less than 100 yards, and he almost always works in urban areas, do law enforcement snipers need long range training?

I affirm: definitely yes. First, long range shooting amplifies errors that are not even visible at 100 yards and therefore cannot even be recognized and corrected. Also, a police sniper needs to use the full range of capabilities, both his own and his rifle. It was a surprise to most police cadets that beer-can-sized hits at 500 yards—their hits they [subsequently] made at close range narrowed considerably as they practiced long-range shooting.

And even though most real shots are fired at close range, the police sniper must be prepared for less likely but very real threats at long range. He may well have to fire on a lunatic shooting from the top of the city's busiest shopping mall on Christmas Day, or cover a hijacked local airliner when he can't get within 400 yards. Thus, while the guidelines suggest that 75 percent of police practice shooting should be done at ranges less than 200 yards, the remaining 25 percent should be fired at all ranges up to 600 yards.

Due to urban sprawl and the reduction of nearby high-powered rifle ranges, some police snipers have acquired small-caliber, heavy-barreled rifles such as Hornady's .22 Long Rifle or .17 Magnum Rimfire, which allow good practice on 50-yard ranges. To be useful, such practice rifles must be of the same quality and weight as close to a regular sniper rifle. This is by no means a substitute for regular shooting practice with service weapon, but allows law enforcement snipers to spend more time on the range, and this is undeniably beneficial.

The Ultimate Sniper:
An Advanced Training Manual for Military
and Police Snipers

May. John L. Plaster, USAR (Ret.)

Rifle shooters fire a shot while exhaling, using a respiratory pause (an interval of 1-2 seconds) between inhalation and exhalation. Why do riflemen do it this way and not otherwise? To better understand this, take the prone position with an emphasis. Aim the rifle at the target. Breathe in. You will feel that when you inhale, the chest has increased in volume and risen. Together with her, the butt of the weapon also rose, and the front sight lowered accordingly. When exhaling, the chest contracts in volume and the front sight rises. This happens both when shooting from a stop, and when shooting from a sling. A person who shoots a pistol can shoot both on an inhalation and on a half-exhalation, but a prone shooter from a rifle can shoot fully only on an exhalation. At the moment of a respiratory pause, on exhalation, carbon dioxide begins to accumulate in the body, which acts on the muscles in a relaxing way. The pulsation at the time of the respiratory pause is the smallest. With exhaled air and a contracted chest, the body of the shooter is relaxed in the most natural way.

Therefore, the shooter assumes a position on the target in such a way that when exhaling, the front sight or other sighting devices naturally move under the target.

Nature has given people different organisms. In some individuals, on a full exhalation, a tense state of the body is created.

This is especially pronounced in hand-to-hand fighters. Therefore, in such cases, it is recommended, having exhaled air from the lungs, inhale slightly (one quarter or half) and hold your breath. You can not hold your breath abruptly. Breath holding is performed by soft cessation of breathing at full exhalation, half exhalation or half inhalation.

The shooter can and should train himself to hold his breath for the 10-15 seconds it takes to shoot. Before the shot, it is recommended to take a few deep, calm breaths and exhalations to enrich the body with oxygen.

At the time of the shot, the position of the front sight and other sighting devices relative to the target must be stable, that is, uniform. Such a stable position during sniper shooting can only be during a respiratory pause. Therefore, the sometimes used method of clarifying and vertically correcting aiming by holding the breath at various moments will be erroneous. For example, when shooting prone, the front sight is higher or lower relative to the target and the shooter is trying to adjust the aiming point higher or lower by inhaling or exhaling. This method is not recommended for beginners. This is sometimes done only by experienced craftsmen who are fluent in shooting techniques.

For novice shooters, a whole system of errors and misses is associated with improper breathing when shooting.

If the shooter does not hold his breath at all when firing, contrary to the instructions of the instructor, from the side you can see how the barrel of his rifle "breathes" up and down. Separations in this case go vertically with a large value.

The breath should be held immediately before the shot, 5-6 seconds before it, after the preparation is verified, the shooter "lay down", first pointed the weapon at the target and peered into it. A mistake often made by beginner shooters is that they hold their breath without "gazing" at the target, and sometimes without even "laying down". At the same time, at the very end of the shot, they run out of air, the beginner begins to choke and quickly presses on the trigger. This leads to inevitable failures. For the instructor, a sign of early breath holding by a cadet is that the barrel of a rifle, which, when normal operation breathing also "breathes" up and down, and then stops for 5-6 seconds for a shot, does not "breathe" from the very beginning, and before the shot, small convulsive vibrations of the barrel are observed.

Beginners also go to the other extreme: they hold their breath too late, just before the shot, when the weapon has not yet "leveled" and not "settled" for the shot properly. Separations are observed along the vertical, most often upwards. The instructor notices such a student's mistake, paying attention to the absence of a stop of the up and down oscillations of the barrel before the shot, or to a very slight stop.

A widespread vice of novice shooters is holding their breath for a long time when firing. When the shooter holds his breath for a very long time, delaying the shot, then in the end he does not have enough air, oxygen starvation sets in, and the shooter tries to quickly pull the trigger and finish the shot. The result is most often a miss. With all this, the shooter imperceptibly strains, which causes increased fatigue.

For a normal shot, you need no more than 5-6, a maximum of 8 seconds. If the shooter cannot meet this time, then something is stopping him. First of all, the instructor must check the correctness of the preparation: with the correct “resting” and trained, accumulated preparation, when everything that could have been ill, has been ill and does not hurt, does not pull or press on any side, nothing should interfere with the arrow. In this case, the instructor, using a stroboscope or clamping a rifle into a sighting machine with control aiming, checks the correct aiming of a particular shooter.

Such checks sometimes reveal very interesting "surprises". In the memory of the author, one of the shooters stubbornly aimed his front sight flush with the shoulders of the chest target. It turned out that his mane of the rear sight was too blurry, and therefore he always took a large fly. In another case, the shooter worked on a large target with a gap and took a very large gap. With a large gap, it is much more difficult to maintain its uniform size, and therefore this shooter all the time, as they say, "played with the gap", scattering bullets vertically.

The shooter is assigned additional exercises to develop stability and balance (see earlier). With increased nervous excitability, swimming is very useful: it calms a person like no other procedure, and increases lung capacity.

Attention is drawn to the work of the finger on the descent. Prolonged breath holding may be due to the fact that the finger simply does not "pull" the trigger (see the "Trigger Release Technique" section below).

In beginners, the most common cause of prolonged breath holding is low shooting stability due to insufficient training. Therefore, a novice shooter is forced to take a ready position for a prone position with a rifle and, observing all the rules of aiming, maintain the front sight at the designated aiming point, without breaking away from the weapon and without tearing the butt from the shoulder for an hour. All this happens without idle clicks. The shooter trains only breath-holding, performing it at the moment of combining the front sight with the desired aiming point. At the same time, the fabrication is refined and corrected at the same time. The shooter gets used to the increased loads and determines what he did right in the ready, and what was wrong and what clearly interfered with him. It is very important for the instructor that the cadet understands the need for all this and does all this consciously. The conscious enthusiasm of the shooter "from the inside" in such cases is more important than the commander's corrections "outside".

Some shooters, especially when shooting while standing, involuntarily tense the muscles of the shoulder girdle, abdomen, abdominals, neck and even face when holding their breath. As already mentioned, when shooting while standing, you need to apply calm force, but you can’t strain. The tension of one muscle group reflexively entails excessive and senseless tension of other muscles. This negates the coordination of movements when aiming and pulling the trigger. Excessive tension causes increased fatigue of the shooter.

When a shooter is tense, he will usually take a quick deep breath before firing and a quick exhale after firing. And even the expression on the face of such a shooter is tense and preoccupied.

To relieve tension, there is a very good practical technique: "sitting, while inhaling, raise your arms through the sides with your palms up, at the same time stretch your legs forward. Holding your breath for 2-3 seconds, stretch strongly. Then, turning your palms forward and relaxing your muscles, as you exhale lower your arms down and pull your legs up to the starting position "(F.I. Zhamkov. Initial training of the shooter-athlete).

PRACTICAL AIMING

All shooters, and snipers too, need to aim with their eyes open. It is forbidden to close and squint the unfocused left eye. Why? Because the muscles of the squinted eye tense up, and reflexively this tension is transmitted to the open eye, which is already tense. Therefore, when closing the non-targeted eye, the visual acuity of the right eye is halved.

In the process of aiming, the eye inevitably gets tired. Therefore, in order to preserve visual acuity for the most crucial moment, aiming is divided into two periods. During the first period, when the shooter has not yet begun to choose the trigger, the correctness of the preparation is checked and the sniper eliminates various minor inconveniences with minor movements of the arms, elbows, legs and torso. This preparatory period takes up half of the entire aiming time, sometimes more. At this time, the shooter, without straining his eyesight, simply looks into the sights so that the eye gets used to the lighting and roughly focuses on the target. The second period is the beginning of processing the shot as such, when the shooter held his breath, increased the pressure on the trigger and his eye began to clearly control the position of the front sight at the aiming point, that is, he began to "peer" at the target, and, in fact, the front sight was held at the desired point aiming until the shot.

Shooters should be aware that self-correction with a spotting scope will cause a drop in visual acuity. Moreover, the clarity decreases both in the "shooting", aiming eye, and in the non-aiming eye, which was observed through an optical device. In shooting sports, this is of no fundamental importance. But in combat practice, when a sniper with his left, unaimed eye constantly observes through a periscope, a stereotube or an artillery compass, this affects the accuracy of shooting in the most direct way.

The sniper must be aware that long-term observation through an optical instrument is very tiring for the eyesight. But that is not all. When the eye is tired, its functional state and degree of perception change. These changes are so significant that they even cause a shift in the midpoint of impact. Even more, the average point of impact shifts with a sharp transition of the eye from one device to another, which have different magnifications. Look at the artillery compass, which has a tenfold increase, and immediately after that, try to aim from the PSO-1 sight, which has a magnification of 4.3x. It is necessary to observe in a compass or periscope - otherwise they can be killed, and quite quickly. But with such observation, the sniper needs to "rest with his eyes" more often, having in his visual memory a "visual picture" of the responsible observed area with the most important landmarks imprinted. By the way, this is useful in the sense that the changes that have occurred on the landscape immediately become visible to the sniper. Therefore, if possible, let your partner observe, and the sniper does not spoil his eyesight once again.

In a combat situation, the sniper shoots with both eyes open, as this retains the advantages of binocular vision. Binocular sharp vision at distances up to 800 meters greatly facilitates the visual determination of the distance to the target. In addition, the second, non-aimed, eye allows you to capture changes on the battlefield.

Some individuals still cannot shoot with their left eye open. They say that after a long and intense visual work, they begin to see double.

It really is. But it is still impossible to squint an unaimed eye. It is better to cover it with a narrow vertical strip of white (and even better light green) paper. In this case, the shooter "disconnects" the non-aiming eye from the aiming process, but retains its binocularity, and the light-receiving balance of both eyes remains the same.

TIGHTEN AIMING (AIMING)

If you aim for a long time, the shooter's eye gets tired very quickly. The physiological standard released for a shot from the moment of holding the breath is 8, maximum 10 seconds. After excessively long (more than 10 seconds) "peering" at the target and controlling the front sight at the aiming point, the so-called "progressive eye fatigue" occurs.

Remember! For one minute of continuous aiming, visual acuity drops by half. Two or three aimed shots tire the eyesight and reduce its sharpness much more than many hours of shooting with loose shots.

At the end of "targeting" the eye is so tired that it is difficult to distinguish the position of the front sight and other sighting devices. The shooter does not notice this, because his visual memory retains in his mind the "sighting picture" in full brightness for 2-3 seconds.

The reasons for targeting are basically the same as for prolonged breath holding (see earlier). And the consequences are the same. Targeting and holding your breath for a long time go hand in hand. The methods for eliminating this shortcoming are the same. If the instructor assigned the cadet to "lay down" for one hour without taking the butt off the shoulder, then the cadet's task is to train, along with holding the breath, and to control the vision of the sights according to the following scheme: control of the position and elimination of its minor negative aspects (at this moment, the vision is resting) ; mobilization for a shot, holding the breath (at this time, the vision "peers" at the target and clearly controls the position of the front sight at the aiming point). After 8 seconds - inhale and rest your eyes. And so for an hour without idle clicks. It is good if during this hour someone with a clock will be next to the cadet to count the above 8 seconds. Gradually the time is reduced. The benefits of this teaching technique cannot be overestimated.

Targeting is a very nasty phenomenon, which sometimes manifests itself even among masters with many years of experience. To reduce it, the shooters learn the so-called shooting technique at a pace. What it is? Shooting at pace is when the shooter learns to shoot in a certain period of time - no more and no less. In that certain moment mobilization of the body should begin, holding the breath, the aiming eye should "peer" and the finger on the trigger should work. And when all these components of the shot are "accustomed" to fire in the same period of time, and not a particularly long one, they begin to reflexively depend on each other. If any of these functions is delayed or does not work, other components “spur” it on, and the shot occurs at the level of automatism. Practical snipers learn to take a shot in 2 seconds, counting out in their minds "twenty-two - twenty-two" - this will be 2 seconds. During this time, the sniper makes a shot on a subconscious level, without thinking about how he breathes, peers, mobilizes and presses the trigger. With the accumulated rate of the shot, everything happens by itself.

BLINKING OR FEAR OF SHOT

If the shooter blinks in the usual way when aiming, as all normal people do, this does not affect the shooting results. But among beginners, the disease of fear of a shot is common, especially from combat repeating rifles with strong recoil. Instinctively, the cadets close their eyes before firing and, of course, stop aiming. Very often, at the same time, they pull the trigger, finally knocking down the aiming of the weapon. They must be weaned from this by explaining that when the rifle jerked and pushed in the shoulder, the bullet was already in the target. And the roar of a shot in general does not pose any danger to health. And, by the way, it is very interesting to look with both open eyes at the rifle and towards the target at the moment of the shot. (And this is really interesting!)

After that, the instructor requires the "morguns" to report where the front sight was looking at the time of the shot (mark the shot). For the most incorrigible of the "morguns", the instructor treacherously and imperceptibly puts training cartridges with sand instead of gunpowder. Why with sand? The gunpowder in the cartridge is poured and rustles by ear, and the sand too. A stubbornly blinking cadet, waiting for a shot, with a failed cartridge, his own shortcoming becomes clear. After that, the instructor forces the cadet to work only with training non-firing cartridges, from time to time placing live cartridges among them. Thus, cadets are taught not to pay attention to the roar of a shot and recoil in general.

HEAD POSITION WHEN AIMING

When shooting with open sights, in which the line of sight is low enough, the shooter's head is positioned so as not to tire the eyes. As already mentioned, with a low workmanship, the eyes get tired faster. Why? Because the head is too tilted forward and the shooter looks at the aiming line from under his brows, "turning" the eye unnaturally from the bottom up, which causes the eye muscles to get tired and all other eye perception systems to reflexively get tired along with them. Therefore, both at low and at all other preparations in all positions - both from the knee and standing - the head should, if possible, be turned with the face perpendicular to the aiming line. When shooting from the knee and standing, it is very undesirable to stretch the head forward. At the same time, the muscles of the face and neck are excessively strained. Position your head so that you can comfortably see a slightly blurred rear sight, a clear, even front sight and a clear target. Place the head with the cheek against the butt and tilt it slightly to the right to help keep the eye on the aiming line, but tilting the head to the right excessively is not recommended. Quite often, beginners, having taken the correct position, change the position of the head on the butt from shot to shot. Uniformity is broken, the spread increases.

When shooting while standing, some shooters tilt their heads too far back. From this, the eyes are forced to squint. Some turn their heads and look sideways, straining their aiming eyes unnaturally.

Incorrect positioning of the head tires the eyes, leads to a delay in the shot and a decrease in shooting accuracy. Some shooters change the position of the head at the moment of aiming, which only worsens the conditions of the shot.

The task of the instructor is to simultaneously monitor the movement of the cadet's finger on the descent and ensure that his head does not come off the butt and does not move during aiming.

To do this, a long paper cap is put on the cadet's shooting finger, which works like a pointer.

F.I. Zhamkov, in his instruction "Initial Training of an Athlete-Shooter", cited a very good, proven method of fixing the head on the butt: "In order to maintain the uniformity of the position of the head without muscle tension when shooting from a rifle, you can do the following: tilt your head away from the butt to the side and back, then, turning the chin to the butt, press on it from above and lower the head to the desired position, while relaxing the muscles of the neck.At the same time, a wrinkle is formed on the cheek that will not allow the head to fall down with relaxed muscles.

Recall that the optical sight is 3-5 cm higher than the open one. Therefore, the shooter fixes his head on the butt not with his cheek, but with his chin. On the SVD rifle, a special leather "cheek" is provided for the uniform fixation of the head (see earlier). On three-line rifles, snipers attach special wooden protruding pads on the stock crest.

Rubber eyecups on the PSO-1 sight contribute to uniform head positioning. On the sights of PU three-line rifles, such eyecups are placed independently. Among other things, they eliminate light glare that interferes with the perception of the shooter.

TRIGGER TECHNIQUE

No matter how correctly the shooter takes the position, no matter how correctly he breathes, no matter how well he keeps the target on the front sight, but if the trigger is released unsuccessfully, everything will go down the drain. Why? Because pulling the trigger requires a specific application of physical effort. In sports weapon systems, the trigger pull force is from 40 to 150 grams. To reduce trigger pull, various ingenious release and trigger systems are used to make trigger release easy and short. In combat practice, this is not applicable. The descent force on combat sniper systems is at least 1.5 kilograms. This is dictated by the requirements for the reliability of the weapon in a combat situation. For the same reasons, the free travel of the trigger for combat rifles is always longer than for sporting ones.

To overcome the above trigger pull of 1.5 kg (and sometimes more), the shooter must apply the same pull on the firing index finger. But in order not to strain the right hand (as it was indicated, it is impossible to strain the right arm and right shoulder in any case), the shooter is forced to “grab” with the fingers of his right hand into the neck of the butt of a three-line magazine rifle or into the pistol grip automatic weapons. Thus, the shooter will fix the stable position of the hand on the weapon and "turn off" (he must turn off) the rest of the right hand from the trigger release process.

But that is not all. The shooter must exclude the influence of the hand on the process and results of trigger release. The fact is that the above 1.5 kg on the descent are distributed both on the index, shooting finger, and on the other fingers holding the hand on the butt. A kind of equilibrium is created that exists until the trigger is pulled. As soon as the trigger is released, the above 1.5 kg on the trigger disappear, and on the remaining fingers, squeezing the neck of the stock or pistol grip, they remain. There is an instantaneous sharp imbalance of forces, which is why the shooting brush "shudders" on the butt, and this shudder is transmitted to the rifle and "knocks" it down. All of the above is called "failure" of the descent, followed by a "pull" of the weapon, which significantly takes the bullet away from the target.

To avoid such a "pulling off", the shooter must remember the following rule: only the index finger pulls the trigger, and all the rest (except the little finger) only hold the hand on the weapon and do not take part in the trigger release. In order to make all this easier to do, there are specific techniques for fixing the shooting hand on the butt of the weapon. For shooting from magazine rifles with a classic butt shape, and for shooting from automatic rifles with a pistol grip, these techniques are somewhat different.

In any of these cases, the index, shooting finger is superimposed on the trigger with a fold at the joint between the first and second phalanges (7 in photo 129). This is a prerequisite, confirmed by centuries of practice. If you don’t do this, but press the trigger of the first or second with the pads of your fingers, the rifle will stray to the right or left, although not by much, while descending. The direction of pressing the trigger should be strictly along the axis of the bore (2 in photo 129). In order to make it easier and the shooting hand does not "shudder" during the descent, you need to perform the correct grip of the stock with the shooting hand.

Photo 129

1 - the index finger pulls the trigger with a bent joint;

When working from a magazine (in this case, from a three-line) rifle, the palm of the right hand lies tightly on the right and on top of the neck of the butt (photo 130). It fits snugly, but does not press with the use of force (7 in photo 130). The thumb of the right hand lies firmly, but again without the use of force, on the neck of the lodge on the left and above. Now attention!

Photo 130 right palm on the neck of the butt ATTENTION! Starting from point 1 onwards, the shooting finger should not touch the stock tightly!

The middle and ring fingers with the pads of the first phalanges are pressed with medium force to the neck of the box (7, 2 in photo 131). The little finger (5 in photo 131) does not press on the neck of the stock. Its task is to lie freely on the butt and not interfere with the process. You can even turn it off completely. The forceful inclusion of the little finger inevitably causes a horizontal displacement of the weapon: some to the right, some to the left.

Photo 131. The correct position of the fingers on the neck of the lodge. The little finger should not turn on, but holding the hand on the weapon

Different shooters have different finger lengths. Therefore, the position of the hand on the neck of the stock must be chosen in such a way that the extended, but not tense index finger with its first joint naturally lies on the trigger. This position of the hand on the butt must be remembered, fixed and made permanent for a particular shooter. A change in the position of the shooting hand leads to an imbalance in the trigger forces and uncontrolled separations.

Starting from its main joint (7 in photo 129), the shooting finger should not tightly touch the neck of the stock. The touches of the shooting finger in this place while it is working on the descent will certainly cause minor displacements of the weapon and separations in the most unpredictable directions.

When firing from combat automatic systems with a pistol grip, the principle of fixing the shooting hand is somewhat different. It is similar to the grip of the handle when firing a combat pistol. When working with a pistol grip, the first condition that must be strictly observed is the inadmissibility of touching the body of the rifle with the firing index finger. Between the shooting finger, the butt and the receiver of the weapon there must be play (7 in photo 132), as when working with the neck of the stock of a repeating rifle. The thumb of the right hand should be firmly pressed against the surface of the handle. Its pressure on the latter occurs strictly perpendicular to its plane (7 in photo 133). The middle and ring fingers should press firmly with their first pads perpendicularly on the surface of the handle (2, 3 in photo 133). The task of the little finger is to simply lie on the handle and not interfere (4 in photo 133). "Turning on" the little finger will definitely "turn on" the shoulder and pull the rifle somewhere to the side. The pistol grip should be tightly, with medium force, "planted" in the palm from top to bottom so that there are no backlashes between the weapon and the upper surface of the hand (7 in photo 134). The trigger guard should rest on the middle finger (2 in photo 134). The shooter must remember this position of the hand on the butt - this is the position of fixing the palm on the pistol grip. When covering the pistol grip, it is impossible for the hand to be lowered lower, since the fixation point is lost. A hand located at different heights relative to the trigger will inevitably provoke the work of the firing finger in different directions vertically, and this will inevitably affect the accuracy of shooting.

Photo 132

Photo 133

1, 2, 3 - the pressure of the thumb, middle and ring fingers occurs strictly perpendicular to the surface of the handle;

4 - the little finger rests freely on the handle

Photo 134

When shooting from a magazine rifle in the prone position and from the knee, the right hand must rest on the neck of the bed and in no case participate in pointing the weapon. In the prone and kneeling positions, the aiming of the weapon is carried out by a correctly oriented workmanship with the rifle resting on the belt and left hand. In the standing position, one way or another, the right hand is forced to engage in holding the weapon. As in the prone and kneeling positions, the aiming of the rifle is carried out by the correct orientation of a stable, balanced position. The role of the right hand is to hold the butt more tightly in the shoulder. At the same time, she can "apply" to the weapon from right to left with medium force.

Automatic systems, due to the peculiarities of their technical design, are worse balanced and not as comfortable to hold as conventional magazine rifles. Therefore, when shooting from an SVD rifle, to hold it, you have to connect your right hand even in the prone position, not to mention shooting from the knee. The direction of the effort of the right hand in this case should press the butt to the shoulder more tightly.

The above methods of working the right hand on the butt and the force interaction of the fingers of the shooting hand significantly reduce the negative effect of the "failure" of the descent. It has been noticed that tight descents have less "failure" consequences. Therefore, the shooters try to fill the trigger stroke after the "failure" with various devices: setting up additional springs, rubber bands, etc. In sports practice, this is justified. In combat reality, such additions to the mechanism lead to a decrease in the reliability of the weapon. Therefore, the shooter must develop his own "anti-failure" physiological mechanism, which will always be with him. Shooters who have worked from combat systems know how difficult it is to stop a finger when the sear has disengaged from the hammer lug. The trigger is no longer holding anything, and it "falls" back along with the index finger.

To prevent this from happening, practice pulling the trigger by flexing only the first knuckle of the shooting finger without bending the rest of it. Practice doing this by placing the tip of the bullet under your finger instead of the trigger. For a shooter who has trained to pull the trigger in this way, the finger after the descent does not bend and does not "break" back, but simply "rests on itself."

You should be aware that simultaneously pressing the trigger and the neck of the butt almost doubles the weight of the trigger, not to mention the displacement of the weapon.

It happens that a finger on a heavy descent of a military weapon "does not pull". This means that when grabbing the neck of the stock or the pistol grip with the right hand, the shooter “squeezed” something. If such a deficiency is observed, it is necessary to change the position of the right hand on the weapon. This position is selected individually for a particular shooter. Sometimes shooters with short fingers use the so-called side grip with the right hand without grabbing the thumb on the neck of the box or the pistol grip on the left side. The palm of the right hand, together with the thumb, is firmly attached to the weapon on the right side (1 in photo 135). This position of the right hand on the butt is considered correct, but you still need to firmly press the pads of the middle and ring fingers on the left side of the butt!

Photo 135. Side grip pistol grip. The thumb can be placed on the receiver cover latch lever - 1

Some shooters (especially women) use the ideomotor method of trigger pulling with great success. They very clearly imagine that some kind of force is pressing on the firing index finger from the outside, and they themselves imperceptibly release the trigger in this way even on heavy combat systems.

The descents of combat systems are very inconvenient and unusual for sports shooters. On different rifles of the same system, they are different: with broaches, "ladders", and a tight move. They turned out that way during manufacture, and they cannot be adjusted. The working surfaces of the sear and the combat lug of the trigger are cemented to increase wear resistance. When they are polished with a file, the cement layer is removed, the wear of rubbing surfaces increases, and at the most inopportune moment the rifle begins to fail. What is suitable in sports practice is unacceptable in combat use.

With very uncomfortable descents of military weapons, the shooter one way or another has to fight "one on one". If the rifle has a very long and drawn-out trigger, without warning (a little extra effort before the trigger breaks off the sear), then the stroke must be pre-selected at least halfway before an aimed breath hold. This will save the shooter a lot of nervous energy, physical strength, and most importantly - the time allotted by the circumstances of the events for the shot. When aiming, the previously "selected" descent is "squeezed" at the required moment. It is not difficult to learn this at all - each shooter will quickly get used to his weapon, its balance and trigger features. Of course, you first need to practice idle.

Now attention! Let's get to the most important element of trigger pulling. Remember: at the moment of "squeezing" the descent, its course should be smooth and constant, regardless of the "roughness" from the friction of the mechanism. To do this, the force applied by the finger on the trigger must be constant. The shooting finger must feel this effort, know this effort independently, "separately from the head" and remember it with muscle memory! With this force known to him, the shooting finger must independently work on the descent.

In order for the index finger to know the trigger force and the degree of its application, the trigger process must be made clear to the shooter. To do this, the well-known long conical paper cap, which plays the role of a pointer, is put on the firing finger. The shooter, holding the rifle in front of him and not aiming anywhere, chooses an excessive (free) stroke of the trigger and, when he "squeezes" the trigger, looks at the movements of the tip of the cap, as at the arrow of the device.

With the correct, uniform application of the same force on the descent, the movements of the cap will be uniform, with the wrong one, with the application of different forces - spasmodic. The movement of the pointer makes it clear to the shooter the effort of the finger on the trigger. When pairing force sensations on the finger with their visualization, their memorization by muscle memory is very effective. A kind of "beacon" of muscle sensations is formed in the subconscious of the shooter, and at the necessary moment a group of "shooting muscles" is automatically, subconsciously brought to this "beacon" and works much better than under the control of consciousness. For a sniper this is important. There is a saying: "The shooter thinks with his eyes." In a trained shooter, the eye "unchains" a kind of shot program laid in the subconscious, which works in the time period set for it.

Having well trained the work of the fingers on the descent, return to the feeling of the state of the right hand. Check whether you strain it or not. Perhaps, while training the descent, you forgot and began to "earn extra money" with your right hand on the butt. At one time, the master of sports of international class Yu. Kudryashov wrote very well about this insidious moment, which sometimes manifests itself even among the masters, in the article "Shooting from a prone position":

“You need to try so that when you press the trigger, the work of the index finger does not cause changes in the efforts of the entire hand. Quite often, an uncertain pull on the trigger leads to the inclusion of the right hand and, worse, the muscles of the right shoulder, imperceptible to the shooter. This entails change in muscle sensations.It seems that you are pulling the trigger, but in fact you are squeezing the neck of the butt more and more.In this case, the error often extends to the right shoulder, which, upon firing or shortly before it, begins to imperceptibly push the butt of the rifle.Under these conditions, a bad shot inevitable."

It is only worth adding to the above - such an error manifests itself not only in the prone position, but also from the knee and when shooting while standing. In some weapon systems, as the trigger is pressed, increasing force must be applied due to the compression of the trigger spring. In this case, the trigger pressure should increase smoothly, without jerks and without slowing down the trigger process. The trigger should be released in no more than 6-7 seconds.

PAIRING VISUAL AIM AND TRIGGER

Aiming and pulling the trigger are inseparable and are a process of several components, the result of which is a shot. A characteristic feature of this process is that the shooter makes a lot of mistakes when shooting, absolutely not noticing them. They are different for different shooters. The task of the instructor is to identify these errors in a particular shooter, make them visible and lead him to an independent and conscious elimination of them.

The essence of a well-aimed shot is that the processes of holding the breath, aiming and pulling the trigger are interconnected and must be performed simultaneously, as a whole, in the same period of time. In order to prevent incorrect memorization, which leads to persistent errors, and loss of training time, the instructor must correctly set the cadet for the interaction of all components of the aiming and triggering process, which is as follows: after the cadet has taken the necessary preparation, he “lay down”, held his breath and “groped” with the front sight or aiming stump aiming point, he begins to "squeeze" the descent. During the 5-8 seconds (no more) put on the "squeeze" of the trigger, the shooter's task is to, with the front sight fluctuating around the desired aiming point, produce an even, without jerking, "squeezing" of the trigger, focusing on the muscle "trigger" memory of the shooter finger. The fact that the front sight "walks" near the aiming point should not bother the shooter. A person is not an aiming machine, and even an experienced master cannot "put" a rifle tightly. Even the master's rifle will fluctuate slightly: 10 microns left and right, some have more, some have less. It depends on training. The task of a beginner shooter is to develop shooting stability.

The front sight (or sighting stump) will definitely walk along the so-called sighting eight. If only the front sight has not gone beyond the target, the bullet will also not go beyond these limits (schemes 34, 35 for shooting "under the bullseye", under the edge of the chest target, in the middle of a growth target or in the middle of the chest target with an optical sight).

Scheme 34. Aiming "under the bleed" with the excess of the trajectory. Shooting with an open fixed sight, a distance of 100 m.

With an even front sight that does not oscillate beyond the target, the point of impact will also not go beyond the target.

Scheme 35. Aiming in the center. If, when shooting with a telescopic sight zeroed in the center, the oscillation area of ​​1 aiming stump does not go beyond the dimensions of the target, the point of impact will also not go beyond these dimensions.

With training, stability improves and the area of ​​"walking" of the front sight and the sighting element of the optics on the target is increasingly reduced. As the skills of breathing, aiming and pulling the trigger are developed, accuracy improves, and consequently, the accuracy of shooting.

Remember! When training shooting in the initial period of training, you can not chase the results. Miracles don't happen. Let the front sight walk around the aiming point. You cannot stop her. Your task is not to catch on and squeeze the trigger no later than the 8 seconds allowed for the shot. And squeeze the descent smoothly and without jerks. Work on the correctness of the process, and the result will appear as stability is gained. Resilience builds up fairly quickly. You can't rush things. It still won't get any faster.

If this is not done, harmful skills are instilled, which are then quite difficult to eradicate. The most common mistake (and not only for beginners, but even for well-known masters) is "catching" the aiming point. Impatient shooters try to "catch" the moment when a smooth front sight, wandering somewhere near the desired aiming point, is combined with it. Not wanting to miss such a favorable moment, the shooter sharply pulls the trigger and ... "pulls" the bullet out of the target. Why is this happening? The fact is that while the trigger mechanism works, the rifle "passes" the desired point on the target and deviates further. In addition, with a sharp movement of the finger on the trigger, the shooter displaces the rifle.

An experienced instructor identifies "twitchers" with an old trick. He puts the cadet all the same training cartridges with sand. When the trigger is released without a shot, a sharp deflection of the barrel to the side becomes obvious to the shooter himself. Even when firing a cartridge, the above-described error is easily detected by visual observation of the weapon: the end of the barrel immediately before the shot sharply and noticeably moves to the side.

In order to teach the shooter not to pull the trigger and to work smoothly with his finger on the trigger, the cadet is "excommunicated" from shooting at the target and for 3-4 lessons they are forced to work idle, without a cartridge, on a white sheet of paper on which the aiming point is not indicated. The cadet aims the front sight in the middle white sheet, paying attention to the prevention of "jerks" for the descent. The instructor inspires the cadet that even a significant deviation of the level front sight from the calculated aiming point with a uniform release of the trigger without jerks will not "throw" the bullet out of the target, and the slightest pull on the trigger will cause a significant separation.

AIMING OUT OF AIM

As already mentioned, aiming and pulling the trigger is a single process. And if it is broken and performed element by element, this leads to uncontrolled misses. One of the most common aiming and triggering mistakes that snipers make is switching their attention to trigger release. Having caught the target on the aiming stump of the optical sight and preparing to shoot, the sniper switches his attention to the trigger release. A single process of aiming and descent is separated. There is no control over the position of the sights, because the shooter is busy fighting the trigger. In the visual memory of the shooter, the image of the aiming picture is fixed, which was before the start of the descent, and the shooter accepts it as real. In fact, at the moment the trigger is pulled, the shooter already stops aiming. Sometimes this happens at the moment when the trigger fell off the whisper, the shooter felt it and relaxed.

Such errors lead to uncontrolled separations in general heap shooting. If you observe the end of the barrel with such an error, you can see that the barrel, which slightly oscillated when aiming in a natural way, just before the shot suddenly “went” smoothly in any direction by a few millimeters.

The remedy for this shortcoming is to teach the shooter to keep the aiming position after the shot. This is also useful for trained shooters who have no, no, and there is a "disease" - to put the weapon away immediately after the shot. In this case, the shooter begins to "drop" the weapon without having squeezed the trigger. Therefore, instructors teach cadets to make a "mark" of a shot - to notice and remember where the front sight was on the target (or relative to it) at the moment the trigger was released, both during the shot and when the trigger was idle.

The best way to overcome the above disadvantages is to train the muscle memory descent work as described above. The trigger release, trained to instinct and occurring at the subconscious level, protects the sniper from many mistakes and errors when shooting in real combat conditions.

WORK OF MUSCLE GROUPS WITH A LONG SHOT

All processes of aiming are interconnected, just as errors during a shot are interconnected. If the shooter is not trained in the automaticity of pulling the trigger, he is forced to perform it under the control of consciousness, and at the same time, the release of the trigger is delayed in time. A prolonged descent causes healing with all its negative consequences - eye fatigue and a decrease in visual acuity, the end of the respiratory pause and oxygen starvation.

The reason for the slow and prolonged descent can also be too careful work with your finger on the descent. Such a cautious approach borders on uncertainty. The shooter tries to pull the trigger as evenly and smoothly as possible and therefore pulls the trigger too slowly with his finger. At the same time, the attention of the shooter switches to the work of the descent, and he weakens the control over aiming (see earlier). Having discovered this and again switching his attention to the trigger, the shooter, not possessing the skills of pulling the trigger from muscle memory, slows down or even stops the trigger process, which further delays the shot. Then comes the targeting with all its consequences.

The reason for the prolonged descent can be: incorrect position of the shooting hand on the butt, when the shooting finger "does not pull" the trigger (see earlier); lack of a gap between the shooting finger and the butt, when the finger tries to pull the trigger, and he has nowhere to pull, since he is pressed against the butt and he has no freedom of maneuver; the repeatedly mentioned convulsive work of other muscle groups, except for those that should work at the right time.

Very often, even experienced shooters, starting to choose a trigger and feeling that the stability of the weapon is lost, release the trigger and, without weakening the “peering” at the sighting line, inhale and exhale air, after which they pull the trigger again. The instructors call it "playing downhill". This cannot be done, because vision is dulled, and with tired or tired visual perception, the shooter wants to quickly “squeeze” the descent and finish the shot. This leads to jerks on the descent and separations.

Remember! The shooter has states when "the shot does not go." For example, if the shooter did not fulfill something from the classic shooting postulates given here. But sometimes this happens for unknown reasons - the shooter consists of living flesh, which is not always subject to consciousness. In such cases, if it obviously does not work out, it is better to put aside the shot, not to waste a cartridge in training and not to unmask yourself in vain in a combat situation. The rule "to put aside a shot that does not go" must be observed not only when working with a cartridge, but also when training empty.

That's the way it's arranged human body that in him everything is reflexively included in the general struggle to overcome something that is outside the organism. That is why it is very difficult for hand-to-hand fighters to master the profession of a sniper. And if a hand-to-hand soldier decided at all costs to learn how to hit (just hit, and not just shoot) from a sniper rifle, he should constantly monitor the relaxed state of muscle groups that are not involved in the direct process of pulling the trigger. That is, you can not keep your fingers, shoulder girdle, muscles of the arms and shoulders in a tense state. It is impossible to keep the preparation in a tense state - this disrupts its monotony, reduces stability, the front sight begins to walk intensively, and the shooter has to refine the aiming all the time, which leads to a delay in the descent, and therefore, again to aiming. In a combat situation, this leads to constant misses, because there you need to immediately work on the target, and there is no time to refine the aiming: the target does not stand still and always leaves.

The fact that the cadet "works part-time" with other muscle groups can be judged by the instructor by the steady downward deviation of the midpoint of impact. The convulsive contraction of unnecessary muscle groups can be judged by the fact that the middle point of impact deviates downward by a significant amount. This happens when a cadet frantically "works" with his shoulder "towards a shot" when firing from magazine rifles with very high recoil. This happens when beginners are afraid of the shot.

The fear of a shot, a roar and a strong recoil keeps beginners in suspense, and excessively. When expecting a strong blow to the shoulder and a sonic boom to the ears, the beginner completely disappears from his head everything that he was taught. Waiting for it terrible phenomenon a novice either pulls the trigger too slowly and uncertainly, losing visual control over the front sight, or, conversely, pulls the trigger out of fear, causing the rifle to shoot down, which is "lubricated" by subsequent recoil and is not noticed by the shooter.

The fact that the cadet is afraid of the shot and expects it, the instructor judges by the tension and stiffness of the preparation, putting his hand to the neck, shoulders and muscles of the shooter's right hand. In addition, the shooter, who is waiting for a shot, has a very tense expression on his face, which instantly disappears after the shot. Very often, shooters begin to squint their eyes, not only the left, but also the right, and involuntarily close them when fired. It happens that the tried-and-tested instructor's technique - to put training non-firing cartridges mixed with combat ones to illustrate this vice - does not work. Then the instructor teaches the cadet to physically work with the shot as such. To do this, the rifle is placed on the stop and the cadet takes a ready position with the butt held by the left hand at the shoulder (photo 108). The task of the cadet is to aim the rifle at the target all the time and keep it on the fly with open eyes, pressing the butt very tightly to the shoulder. The instructor loads the rifle with a live cartridge, commands the cadet. "Press the butt, look forward, do not strain below the belt!" Then the instructor, having received confirmation from the cadet that he took aim, carefully, without moving or pulling off the weapon, while resting his thumb into the trigger guard, he pulls the trigger himself. The task of the cadet is to perceive the unexpected roar of a shot and a blow with a butt in the shoulder with open eyes and see everything that happened in front of him. And make sure there's nothing to worry about. After five such shots, the instructor suggests the cadet to stand up, walk around and warm up, then the maneuver is repeated. After three or four such visits within half a day, the cadet gets tired of such guardianship, and he begins to shoot on his own. It dawns on the beginner that a shot is a common technical phenomenon and should not be feared. Moreover, the instructor inspires the trainee that the shot is a consequence of its preliminary processing (aiming, holding the breath, descent) and nothing more. You have to work on the shot, prepare it, and not wait for it to happen.

To consolidate the acquired skills, the instructor makes sure that the cadet makes a mark with each shot where the front sight is looking on the target at the time of the shot. In addition, after a shot or a training idle descent, a cadet must remain stationary for 1-2 seconds and then get used to it.

One of the most common vices in hand-to-hand combatants learning to shoot a rifle is the hasty, hurried and fidgety work of the shooting finger on the trigger, even with well-executed aiming. The reason for this is often incorrectly set breathing. The shooter either holds it too early, as a result of which he does not have enough breath and he hurries to finish the shot by quickly pressing the trigger, or he holds his breath while inhaling more than necessary - this loses stability and the shooter begins to "catch" the aiming point and " support".

If the breath is held too long, aiming occurs, sometimes to such an extent that the shooter gets dark in his eyes, and he hurries to finish the trigger as soon as possible, no longer controlling the shot. The desire to quickly finish the descent comes with tension in the muscles of the face, reflexively attracting tension in the muscles of the eye, and, consequently, its premature fatigue. Remember! When "peering" the eye into the aiming line when processing a shot, it is necessary to sharpen visual attention and in no case strain the eyesight. With visual attention sharpened for 10 seconds, the eye does not get tired. Eye strain is a senseless waste of nervous energy. You will achieve much better results in shooting if, with the beginning of holding your breath (this will be a signal to all body systems about the beginning of the aiming and triggering process), sharpen the visual attention of the aiming eye and at the same time turn on the work of the shooting finger on the descent according to its muscle memory. And never unnecessarily shoot in low light - as already mentioned, visual fatigue leads to a desire to quickly finish the shot - this causes a jerk for the trigger, which leads to a miss.

ATTENTION! Descent jerks in beginners uncontrollably and uncontrollably occur after hard work, cross-country training, hand-to-hand combat and after eating. Therefore, it is advisable to conduct initial shooting training in the morning.

Hand-to-hand fighters have another drawback that does not allow them to fully work with a sniper rifle. The operatives, who previously practiced high-speed pistol shooting, immediately after the shot throw their index finger forward. Quite often they do this as soon as they feel that the trigger has been pulled from the sear. Yes, with high-speed intuitive shooting from a pistol, this is commendable. But for a sniper rifle, no. With a sharp movement of the finger forward, the shooter slightly shifts the weapon, often while also “working” with the fingers of the hand, which further aggravates the situation. This is especially true when shooting from a BCC rifle, in which the striker moves so slowly that the weapon has time to move even before the bullet leaves the barrel. However, this affects other rifles as well.

As a rule, this error is observed in nervously excitable shooters who are accustomed to instant mobilization for specific combat operations. They often have excessive haste when pulling the trigger.

The best remedy for such a mistake is to give the shooter 20 rounds so that he shoots slowly for his own pleasure. And then tell him why he can’t shoot, make him keep a stationary position of readiness, weapon and shooting finger for a second after the shot (teach the shooter to count “twenty-two” in his mind after the shot), and so that the shooter must mark where the front sight was on the target at the time of the shot. From time to time, for clarity of what has been achieved, the instructor places non-heating training cartridges on the cadet.

WEAPON FALLING TO THE SIDE

In the process of making and aiming (especially in non-standard conditions), the shooter loses his orientation along the horizon and tilts the weapon along the axis of the barrel to the right or left. This is called weapon dumping.

When a weapon is dropped, the bullets are deflected in the direction where it was dropped. Why is this happening? As already known, in order to hit the aiming point at a long distance, the bullet first rises vertically along its trajectory, and then drops vertically down and falls to the desired point. If the weapon is tilted, say, to the right, the excess of the bullet's trajectory will also be tilted to the right, and when the trajectory is lowered, the bullet will go down, shifting to the right. Thus, slight tilts (stalls of the rifle) cause tangible displacement of the bullet from the aiming point. Moreover, the farther the firing distance, the greater the displacement of the bullet (diagram 36). A similar process occurs when working with an optical sight.

Scheme 36. Bullet trajectory:

1 - with even weapons;

2 - with the weapon "dumped" to the right

ERRORS MADE IN AIMING WITH AN OPTICAL SIGHT

For a more or less trained sniper, an optical sight makes aiming easier. Beginners also need to be aware of the mistakes that are most often made by novice snipers.

As already mentioned, with the slightest shift of the aiming eye from the optical axis of the sight, semilunar eclipses appear in the visual field. Without noticing them, the shooter tries to align the aiming stump (angle) with the desired aiming point, and he has the illusion that this is not happening. The shooter tries to correct the discrepancy, but the illusion remains, and in fact the aiming occurs with an error equal to the amount of the stump displacement, and in the opposite direction. For example, the eye is shifted from the optical axis to the left, the darkening also turned out to the left, it seems that the stump is shifted to the left, but in fact the shooting goes to the right. This error occurs if the shooter has not learned to clearly see the visual field of the sight around the perimeter.

The next mistake - the shooter first aims the aiming stump at the target, and then evens out the clarity of the visual field along the edges. While he does this, the stump moves away from the target, and everything starts all over again. With this error, the shooter begins to move the head on the butt, changing the position of the aiming eye and exacerbating the situation. Remember! The position of the head on the butt should be uniform and cannot be changed. You can’t “rub” the buttstock with your chin when reloading a weapon and raise your head - this is not only a bad habit, but also a very dangerous one for a combat situation (see below). It is impossible to break the uniformity of the correct attachment and allow the aiming eye to shift. The fixed position of the head on the butt cannot be changed for the reason that it quickly dulls the vision. To fix the head on the SVD rifle, a leather "cheek" is specially provided.

The most common mistake novice shooters make is that after a stubborn struggle to keep the target on the tip of the sighting element, the shooter's attention switches to the trigger, and control over the "picture" in the sight field is lost. This is typical for work with an open sight, but when shooting with optics, it manifests itself even more. The arrows simply do not notice the arising semilunar blackouts and shadows. In his visual memory, the sight field is fixed as it was before the moment when attention was switched to the trigger, so all other shifts also pass by the shooter's attention. Remember! The process of pulling the trigger must be trained to automatism so that it takes place on its own, at the subconscious level. All attention is only on the control of maintaining the clarity of the sight field along the edges and the target on the tip of the aiming element. Vision must grasp everything at once: the target, the stump and the field of sight along the edges. It is not so difficult.

Practice the above methods of aiming with an optical sight empty, without a cartridge. This process is difficult in its own way.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR STATIC RIFLE SHOOTING WORKOUTS

To the great disappointment of those who like to shoot from a long-range rifle at long distances, it is necessary not only to shoot, but also to hit where they were aiming. In order to hit, you need shooting stability, for the development of which it is necessary to train the correctness of the manufacture, holding the breath, "peering" into the aiming line and the automaticity of the trigger release. For beginners, all this is physically uncomfortable, painful, boring and uninteresting. Unfortunately, there is no other way. Sniping is the art of the patient. All the above methods of preparing, aiming and pulling the trigger have been worked out by our ancestors over the centuries, and, of course, only those methods that work in practical shooting were selected. Shooting techniques from accurate rifled long-barreled weapons formed the basis of sports rifle shooting, and best practices nobody came up with it. Shooting techniques from combat and small-caliber rifles are exactly the same. The stock for firing rifles of different calibers is practically the same. The basis and peculiar foundation for a well-aimed shot from a rifle is the amount of practical skills acquired by the shooter in making the right preparation, aiming and pulling the trigger. A shot is only the result of a combination of these skills. And the more correctly the classical shooting postulates worked out by our ancestors are observed, the more accurate and effective the shot will be.

The base for a well-aimed shot is developed by hard empty training. The shooter cocks the shneller, hammer, etc. and produces a blank descent with aiming as if there is a live cartridge in the barrel. In one training session, 150-200 such idle descents are made (not at all to save ammo). The fact is that so far no one has learned to shoot, working with only real ammunition. When fired, the sensations of the shooter and the aiming image are "blurred" by the sound of the shot, recoil, flash and smoke. With a "blank shot" without a cartridge, all these phenomena that "erase" the impressions of the shot do not occur, and the shooter is able to notice and remember (in shooting slang "mark") where the front sight was looking at the target at the moment the trigger was pulled. And therefore, according to this mark, the shooter and his instructor can understand this or that mistake or error of the shooter (and in shooting practice they are constant and inevitable) and take measures to eliminate it. Therefore, the shooter during training fires the above number of blank shots, performing each of them as if he were firing a live cartridge. At the same time, the shooter develops shooting stability - the main basis for marksmanship. From time to time - after 2-3 blank clicks - the shooter fires a live cartridge to check what he has achieved by working empty. This is how rifle shooters have been trained for centuries. This is how the famous Boer shooters near the Transvaal River, and the Finnish "cuckoos", and the German snipers of the famous Berlin shooting school practiced. This is how Soviet snipers were trained, forcing them to lie for hours in the snow in the cold or up to their necks in swamp slurry. There was no other way out, and other ways of training have not yet been invented.

The psychophysiological characteristics of a person are forced to reckon with themselves. Throughout the centuries of experience with firearms, it has been established that you cannot train in practical shooting every day - the results from this do not increase. The quality of shooting rests against some invisible barrier and does not change, despite the efforts of the shooters. Practice shows that shooting training should be carried out every other day, with the duration of the direct shooting process no more than 2.5-3 hours. Why? Because the work of an arrow is static loads, unnatural for a living organism. Such loads, plus an aggravation of visual targeted attention, require an increased expenditure of nervous energy. This whole process is not normal for a living organism, so the sniper after a full three-hour training feels exhausted. It is impossible to continue training for more than 3 hours - otherwise a very bad and well-known phenomenon of "training" occurs, that is, a persistent aversion to the shooting process and everything connected with it.

Shooting training and preparation for it really takes half a day. The remaining day and a half before the next training session, the cadet always has something to fill in: studying the material part of the weapon, the theory of ballistics, practical camouflage, working out balance on swinging logs, aviation lopings and other devices, general physical training, training in plastun crawling (this is very useful for a sniper ) and especially the training of observation.

During the initial training period, which lasts at least a month, the instructor makes the cadets do everything right. A cadet, left to himself, after acquiring initial knowledge, naturally, there is a certain increase in results compared to the zero level. If this cadet is not supervised, his training work is not controlled, and shooting is not "set" for him, the growth of results immediately stops. This happens because all the positions and conditions of marksmanship technique listed in this manual seem so simple to the cadet that he stops paying attention to their implementation. (This is understandable - each of us, having done something for a couple of weeks, is sure that he already knows everything in this industry.) A beginner believes in secrets, knowing which, he can become a real sniper. The secrets of shooting skills are a mass of trifles described in this manual, interconnected with each other. It is not enough to know all this - you must be able to do all this and be able to do it in kind, and for this you need to live all this and feel for long hours the unpleasant efforts made for the shooting process. Where there is no muscle effort, there is no muscle memory. Where there are no repeated repetitions of these efforts, there is no necessary skills. Skill produces results. In sniper practice, there is only one evaluation criterion - hit or miss. Anyone who ended up in a war should be able to hit. Otherwise, they will fall into it.

Both novice snipers and father commanders should know and remember that sniping is not a trade, but a martial art. Sniper status simply cannot be different. Artisan shooter will not complete the task, will light up and be killed. Only a real sniper, prepared as expected, can give a real result. Therefore, the sniper is prepared not just by introductory classes, but by intense training, which one way or another will have to spare no time, effort and ammunition.

SNIPER SHOOTING TECHNIQUE AS PART OF A MOBILE GROUP

According to the tactical specifics of actions as part of a small mobile group (reconnaissance and search), the sniper is "tied" to the group commander and basically acts according to his instructions. The fire specifics of a small mobile search group is characterized by the sudden appearance of targets and the need to take positions for firing on the move, sometimes in the most inconvenient and unpredictable places. In such conditions in the open, the shooting sniper instantly moves from the upper level to the lower and assumes a prone position. How this is done in practice is shown in photos 136-138. From a running position, the sniper dampens his speed by jumping (photo 136), shock-absorbing on half-bent legs. Each of us did just that when we were long jumping. With the speed extinguished (it is at it), the shooter quickly but gently kneels with a bent back, bending down to reduce the silhouette from the oncoming enemy fire. The prone position is taken first with cushioning on the right hand (photo 137), then comes the already known, previously described, prone position with an emphasis on the left elbow, with a belt lashed over the left hand above the elbow. The right hand at this moment inserts the butt into the right shoulder. After that, the workpiece takes the finished shape (photo 138).

Photo 136

Photo 137

Photo 138

There is another option for taking the position for prone shooting on the move. It is faster and more comfortable for most shooters and was therefore the most commonly used in the old days. It consists in the fact that after the speed from running is extinguished by a jumping movement (photo 136), the shooter gently kneels, then, bending his back forward (photo 139), very softly and slightly falls directly on his stomach and left elbow, shock absorbing with his right hand, at the same time inserting the butt into the shoulder and already in the fall trying to take the ready for shooting. Strange as it may seem, falling from your knees prone to the ground in this way, with your back bent forward, is softer and faster than it might seem. This process is described in the combat manual for NKVD snipers and came from there. Practice and you will succeed. This method is practical in its own way and therefore was cultivated by many army snipers, despite the negative attitude of the authorities towards it. The fact is that, kneeling with his back bent forward, the shooter has an increased silhouette and is more susceptible to being hit by bullets and shrapnel. But the one who does better wins, and the winners are not judged. The above-described option of quickly adopting a prone position is suitable not only for rushes, but also, if necessary, suddenly from a standing position to take a position for prone shooting. To do this, bend your legs apart at the knees and quickly but gently lower yourself onto them. It is important that the width of the set knees be wider than the shoulders. Bend your back (belly) forward. Move your pelvis forward. Fall gently onto your stomach and left elbow. Learn to do it with a rifle in your left hand, a rifle sling lashed over your left hand, and do it in one motion, whether standing or running. You will understand that it is no longer possible to do better and faster. This is not only the personal opinion of the author. Of course, the author does not reject the statutory methods of taking the prone position, practiced in the army.

Photo 139 After extinguishing the speed with a jumping motion, the sniper gently kneels and bends his back forward

There is another way of cushioning when moving to a prone position - cushioning with an emphasis on a rifle butt (photo 140). It is used when falling among sharp building and mountain debris. Of course, an extra blow for the sniper automatic rifle undesirable because it can knock down the aiming of the optical sight, but sometimes it is better to sacrifice a rifle than to crash with it. For a solid three-line rifle, such blows do not matter.

Photo 140 Transition to the prone position with support on the rifle butt

Having taken a prone position (meaning the case of shooting out of the blue), the sniper fires a certain number of aimed shots, depending on the situation. But you can't stay in this place for long. Not later than in 30 seconds, the enemy will shoot at this place. The meaning of the tactics of a small group is its mobility. Therefore, you will either have to crawl or run across to change position. What is the best way to do this? Try to rise from a lying position in the usual way. Anyone can do it slowly, clumsily, and most importantly, you will rise from the same place where you fell. And the enemy, who detected your fall and shooting, knows that you will rise right there. Therefore, having risen in the place where you fell and from where you shot, you will stumble upon someone else's bullet. To prevent this from happening, you need to climb away from a conspicuous and dangerous place, doing it quickly. It is best to roll over and then get back on your feet. To do this, in the same prone position (photo 141), roll sharply to your left, pressing the rifle to your left shoulder with your left hand (photo 142). When you roll from your back to your right side, pull the lower, right leg under you (photo 143) and, raising the body (7 in photo 144), bring forward, to the right, in the direction of movement, the left, upper leg (2 in photo 144). At the same time, grab the knee of the bent leg with the right hand (3 in Photo 144) and create support on the half-bent elbow of the right hand (4 in Photo 144).

Photo 141

Photo 142. Exit from a lying position to a standing position. Roll from belly to side and back

Photo 143 Roll from back to right side. Pull your right leg under you

Photo 144

1 - raise the body;

2 - move the left leg forward along the roll;

3 - grab the right knee;

4 - raise the body with support on the half-bent right elbow

If you do this, the inertia force of the roll will lift your torso through the supporting half-bent elbow (PI 145). If you do this vigorously enough, some unknown force will "entrust" you and put you on your feet (photo 146).

Photo 145

Photo 146

If you want it to work out better and more effectively, at the moment of grabbing the right knee with your right hand (3 in photo 144), sharply move your right knee forward with a enslaved half-bent right elbow (4 in photo 144). One additional effort of this knee will be enough to sharply "pull" you to the right and up (photo 145). This moment is learned with each shooter individually. Someone very simply “pulls out” himself with his knee, but for someone you first need to give inertia to the mass of the thigh and knee in order to “grab” it. In any case, this method of lifting from a lying position to a standing position by running is very simple to learn

All kinds of search activities and actions of a small mobile group in general often take place in conditions of limited visibility, rough terrain and dense vegetation. In such conditions, the enemy can appear from any, the most unexpected side at a short distance, and the battle takes on a fleeting "cowboy" option. When the author asked the former SMERSH officer, what should a sniper do in such cases, the old wolfhound replied: "Get out." Under such circumstances, everyone starts shooting without a command, and the sniper with his long non-rotating rifle has a hard time. He starts to "twist" into literally this word. Let's say the target was in front, and the sniper was working on it lying down (photo 146). With the sudden appearance of a target, for example, on the right, it takes a very long time to reorient to it in the usual way. Therefore, the sniper rolls to the left side and works on the right target as shown in photo 147. When a target appears from the other side, the sniper's actions are similar (photo 148). In this case, you can easily "spread" to the other side to hit a sudden target that appeared from the opposite side. At short distances, up to 200 meters, you can not rearrange the sight, but also aim at the enemy from the side, slightly "crashing" with aiming devices into his silhouette.

Photo 147

Photo 148

If the enemy suddenly appears from behind, the sniper, who was previously in a prone position, rolls over onto his back and assumes a sitting position, while sharply turning his rifle back (photo 149). In order to prevent the rifle from rocking, it is given a stable position by resting the left elbow on the body (7 in photo 149). At the same time, they try to put the left hand as perpendicular as possible, so that the rifle is less pulled to the side (usually to the right). It is desirable to put the legs with wider heels so that the body does not shake left and right.

Photo 149

1 - emphasis of the left elbow in the body

During mobile sniper work, the so-called "Bedouin method of shooting" is often used (photo 150). It consists in the fact that the shooter sits on the buttocks, the right leg is bent, and the half-bent left leg rests his thigh on the boot of his right foot (1 in photo 134). The workmanship is very low, the shooter almost lies on the rifle. The left elbow rests on the left knee in a way that is comfortable for a particular shooter.

Photo 150

1 - the thigh rests on the boot of the right foot.

Please note that in all the photographs cited in this section, the sniper is working with the belt sufficiently stretched and lashed over the left arm between the elbow and shoulder. Both in training and in combat, knowledgeable snipers will never ignore the technique of shooting using a sling. The methods of shooting with the use of a gun sling set out in this manual give the weapon the same stability as when shooting from a stop. But in maneuverable combat operations in conditions of surprise, transience and unpredictability, the use of an emphasis is excluded - there will simply be nowhere to take it. A regular rifle belt is always with the weapon. Therefore, even when rushing, snipers try not to remove this belt from their left hand, so as not to waste time for “winding it up” if immediate shooting is necessary.

From the German rangers came the so-called rangers' method of shooting. Its essence is visible in photo 151. In this case, socks should be pressed tightly to the ground. This method is used when shooting in a low bush and in ruins.

Photo 151

MOVING TARGET SHOOTING TECHNIQUE

As you know, when shooting at moving targets, you need to take the necessary lead by setting the front sight or aiming stump ahead of the target’s movement or by making the necessary correction by turning the side flywheel. But for this accurate shooting for running targets is clearly not enough. Having chosen the necessary lead, you need to hold it until the moment of the shot, until the bullet leaves the bore. This is called "shooting with a leash of a weapon". To maintain the necessary lead, the shooter needs to move the rifle along with the movement of the target and do it smoothly, gently and without jerks.

Suppose, at a distance of 350 meters, a growth target running from left to right along the front (4 m / s) during the flight of a bullet towards it (0.5 s) passes a distance of 2 meters, which in the projection will occupy rounded 6 divisions of the PSO-sight combat correction scale 1. Consequently, the shooter aims at the running target with the sixth risk of the lateral correction scale, "landing" the target on this risk and tying the latter slightly forward, closer to leading edge goals. The target with such aiming should "run to the main square inside the sight, and not out" - the literal expression of an experienced instructor (diagram 37). In this position of the aiming image, the shooter leads the rifle along with the target until it fires.

Scheme 37. Shooting at a running target. Reticle PSO-1

How does he practically do it? In order to shoot with a movable rifle, it is necessary to shift the shooter system - the weapon. If you try to move the rifle with just the movement of your hands, you simply won't succeed. If you move your shoulders and stomach, the weapon will begin to "jump" vertically. Experienced shooters of the old school move the rifle horizontally with the so-called "boot movements". In the normal prone position from the belt, aim at some point on the line of targets, then bring the toe of your right foot away from you and the toe of your left foot towards you. Provided that the legs are firmly pressed with heels and toes to the ground, you will see how the rifle "led" along the horizon from right to left. Bring the toe of your right foot towards you, and your left foot away from you, and the rifle will go from left to right. Moreover, this movement will be smooth, monotonous and without jerks. Practice this, and the range of motion of the rifle will increase significantly. Such a horizontal segment of the movement of the weapon for an aimed shot is more than enough. Recall that for a trained sniper with a well-established technique of pulling the trigger according to muscle memory, especially if the trigger is developed in the automatism of the pace, 2-3 seconds are enough for an aimed shot, starting with holding the breath. For shooting with a moving weapon, long-term tracking of the target is not at all necessary, moreover, it is harmful, because the front sight (stump) begins to move vertically. A shot at a running target must be made quickly. Try to get a shot at a pace (in a given period of time) at a running target: as soon as you have captured the target (in our case, at the sixth risk from the aiming square), count to yourself "twenty-two, twenty-two, twenty-two"; at this time, by turning the socks resting on the ground, guide the weapon along with the target; during the same time, a trained shooting finger will choose the trigger itself! And even when a shot is fired or an idle practice click occurs, do not stop the leash of the weapon! Get used to doing all this at the same time, in one short movement, and the shorter this set of movements takes place, the better it will turn out. This is exactly the case when the shooter thinks with his eyes, and everything else works on trained reflexes, subconsciously.

Prolonged tracking of the target leads to a separate execution of the shot on the elements, which in turn leads to switching attention from aiming to triggering. Remember "The shooter aims with heightened visual attention, and if it is gone, as they say, from aiming" on the trigger, "there will be no accurate shooting.

Aiming is not necessarily carried out by tracking the target (in our case, at the sixth risk). Trained shooters shoot at running targets very quickly, almost instantly, catching up with the aiming square and overtaking it by (in our case) six marks. As soon as the sniper "caught up" with the aiming square, he begins to "squeeze" the descent, and as soon as he "catches up" with the sixth (in our case) risk, the descent is squeezed. With this method, due to the horizontal inertia of the weapon, it is almost impossible to stop it when fired.

Stopping the weapon immediately after firing is the most common mistake. Shooting at running targets is not easy and very difficult. Struggling with the rifle and with himself, the shooter stops the weapon and "throws" the trigger, sometimes immediately, if he feels that the trigger has fallen off the sear. When fired from a stationary weapon, the target "runs away" from the bullet 1.5 meters forward.

In our case, when shooting at a full-length running figure at a distance of 350 meters (this is a real distance in combat conditions), you can aim with an open sight P (constant) or 3 1/2 (optical), aiming ahead of the figure’s belt, or with a sight "6 ", visually anchoring the aiming movement on the horizon and aiming ahead of the target's heels. In this case, you fall into the target's belt (diagram 38). Of course, you need to take the necessary lead.

Scheme 38. Aiming with an open sight at a running target at a distance of 350 m with a sight "6" with the front sight tied to the horizon line:

1 - target movement;

2 - movement of the rifle;

3 - exceeding the trajectory;

4 - horizon line.

After the shot, do not stop the leash of the weapon!

Some shooters, when leashing a rifle, spread their legs wide, while the principle of the leash changes: when working with the toe of the right foot “away from you”, the weapon turns not to the left, but to the right. Some shooters "turn" the weapon in a leash behind the target by working their knees on the principle of "push - push". Who does it better. With all these methods, it is important to keep the system of shooters stable, intact and enslaved - weapons in the shoulder girdle, left elbow and the entire "shooter - rifle" knot, "connected" with a gun belt.

The value of the sniper's ability to quickly and confidently hit fleeing targets cannot be overestimated, especially when conducting special operations, when there are practically no fixed targets.

When firing while standing at running targets, her escort and leash of the weapon behind the target are carried out by twisting the body in the belt. At the same time, the entire upper part of the body is preserved in a enslaved state, namely, the shoulder girdle with the elbow resting on the body on the side and the vertical position of the left hand holding the rifle.

The work of the feet to move the weapon across the horizon in the prone position is not only used when shooting at running targets. This technique is used when it is necessary to transfer fire from one target to another or when firing at targets that quickly appear and quickly disappear in different places.

In itself, sniping at fleeing targets is an avid sport. Back in the 70s, many military shooting ranges were equipped with installations for practicing shooting at targets moving at different speeds, at different angles and at different distances. Even earlier, in the 60s and 50s, shooting from a rifle and machine gun at moving targets was in the order of things. Even at the DOSAAF level, such training was carried out daily. Now such shooting is already considered "aerobatics".

FEATURES OF AIMING WITH AN OPEN SIGHT

When aiming correctly with an open sight, the front sight (7 in Diagram 39) should be in the center of the rear sight slot (2 in the Diagram) strictly vertically (Axis A in the Diagram), and its top is set strictly at the level of the rear sight mane (Axis B in the Diagram). This is called a flat fly. All military weapons are zeroed in the center in the statutory manner, that is, the bullet must "fall" on the tip of the front sight (7 in diagram 40). But this is ideal. In reality, the human eye is not able to clearly see three objects that are one after the other, that is, a slot, a front sight and a target. One of these points will always be blurry. Through centuries of practice, it has been established that top scores shooting is achieved when the slot and mane are blurry, and the front sight and target are clearly visible. In reality, the vast majority of shooters do just that (Scheme 41). This vagueness of the slot, which is the same on both sides, does not affect horizontal errors, and the shooter instinctively and correctly sets the front sight in the middle. The vertical dispersion is affected: for one shooter, the "horizontal blur" of the rear sight mane (7 in diagram 41) is greater, while for the other it is less. Nature has given different vision to different people. As a result, the front sight is taken either higher or lower. Therefore, in the army, a specific number of weapons is assigned to a specific soldier.

Scheme 39. Open sight device. Smooth fly:

1 - front sight; 2 - slot; 3 - mane; 4 - rear sight body; A - vertical axis; B - horizontal axis

Scheme 40. Aiming with an open sight "in the center":

1 - the aiming point is the same as the point of impact

Scheme 41

The height of the front sight with a vague mane of the rear sight must be taken somewhere in the middle of this blurred horizontal strip, and during subsequent shooting, it is precisely this position that must be observed.

When shooting at a distance of 100 meters at a growth (and even chest) target, you can still clearly select the aiming point on the silhouette of the target with the front sight of an open sight. With very good eyesight, you can do this at a growth target, shooting even at 200 meters (a well-known command is to aim at the belt). And at a distance of 300 meters, it will be problematic for you to aim clearly at the belt: the target will merge with the front sight.

Therefore, for the best guarantee of a hit, you will have to shoot under the target, so that it is at the front sight or even higher with a small gap between the front sight and the target. What is the need for light? The black front sight merges with the dark target, and the shooter "cuts" the front sight into the target and often just "loses" it. The presence of a small, "by a hair" clearance allows you to control the position of the front sight relative to the target and not "crash" the front sight into the target. So it is better to control the position of the target relative to the front sight. In order for the bullets not to go too low, the scope must be raised and you will have to refer to the average trajectory excess tables for a specific type of weapon (see below). When firing from the SVD at 200 meters with an open sight at the head poking out of the trench, aiming "under the head" with a gap (Scheme 42), you need to set the sight "3". At a distance of 200 meters, the excess of the trajectory is 17 cm (see the table of excesses for the SVD rifle). If you aim at the Adam's apple, under the chin, you will hit the bridge of your nose. At a distance of 150 meters, aim in the same way - you will hit 1 cm higher (see table), the effect will be the same. At a distance of 100 meters, if you aim in the same way, under the sawn-off shotgun with a "2" sight, you will hit the enemy 3 cm below the bridge of your nose. This technique is used in fleeting street fights, when targets suddenly pop out from behind cover at short distances.

Scheme 42. Shooting at the head with an open sight with a gap with the front sight tied to the shelter horizon

1 - clearance

Under such circumstances, "cling" the front sight to the horizon of the shelter and do not particularly "target": the target got out above the front sight - "squeeze" the descent. The main thing is not to pull the descent. Rehearse this moment when shooting at a sports pistol target number 4, set at a distance of 200 m. The diameter of this target is 25 cm, and it was not chosen by chance at one time - this is the diameter of a human head.

When shooting at a distance of 300 meters at a growth target, you can "attach" the tip of the front sight to the horizon and the heels of the enemy. In this case, the silhouette of the growth target will be perfectly and clearly visible from above the front sight (Scheme 43). But so that your shooting does not go too low, set the sight "5". According to the table of average trajectory excesses on the SVD rifle (see table below) with the "5" sight, at the specified distance with the aiming point along the horizon (along the heels), the trajectory excess will be 70 cm, that is, the bullet will hit somewhere in the buckle on the stomach. Sight "5" at this approximate, approximately "estimated" distance with a sight on the heels - very a good thing. At a distance of 250 meters, the bullet will also hit 70 cm above the heels, at 200 and 350 meters - 64 cm higher, that is, almost where it needs to be. And even at distances of 150 and 400 meters at a half-crouching running enemy, shoot at his heels with a "5" sight - you will hit him above the knees. All this is very good, practical and quickly obtained in maneuverable fleeting combat in the city and in the forest, when there is no time to set the sight, but you need to catch the target with the front sight and press the trigger more often. Thus, you can shoot from any long-barreled weapon. Of course, for this you need to look into the tables of excess trajectories more often in advance.

Scheme 43. Aiming "at the feet on the heels" when shooting with a direct shot with a sight "5-from a distance of 300 m with a "binding" of the front sight along the horizon line:

1 - horizon line

At low (chest and shoulder) targets, shoot in the same way, aiming along the horizon under the target with clearance. On a low camouflage target, it is very difficult to select the "center" aiming point when aiming with an open sight. In this case, install the sight "P" (permanent) - it usually corresponds to a distance of 300 meters. If you hit 10 cm higher or lower, it doesn't matter. The main thing is that you hit at least 1 cm above the horizon line of the shelter, behind which the target is located (diagram 44).

Scheme 44. Aiming along the horizon with clearance during combat firing at low (chest and shoulder) targets with a direct shot with a sight "P" (permanent)

In all the cases described above, never take a large clearance - it should be barely visible.

An open sight must be respected and one must be able to work with it. With a broken (or "knocked") optics, an open sight is the last hope. Practice shooting with it from time to time. As practice shows, a shooter who has been working with an optical sight for a long time sometimes needs to re-adapt his vision to work with an "open" front sight. At the same time, unexpected things are sometimes observed: snipers unlearn how to keep an even front sight. The errors from this are visible in diagrams 45-47.

Scheme 45. "Large" front sight. The bullets will go up

Scheme 46. "Small" fly. The bullets will go down

Scheme 47. With lateral displacement of the front sight, the bullets will go in the direction of displacement

On many older systems ( three-line rifle release before 1930, german rifle"Mauser 7.92", Japanese "Arisaka") for more accurate aiming, triangular pointed front sights and, accordingly, triangular slots were used (Scheme 48). Indeed, with a pointed front sight it is easier to select the aiming point directly on the target and "fix" it, but well-trained shooters with excellent eyesight can effectively do this. Conventional shooters with a triangular front sight have even more height dispersion, since it is difficult for them to control the sharp top of the front sight in line with the blurry mane of the rear sight.

Scheme 48. Triangular front sight

In some cases, so-called diopter sights are used. The essence of the diopter sight is that from above the blurred rear sight with a semicircular slot is, as it were, covered with the same blurred whole with the same slot. It turns out a round hole, evenly blurred along the edges (scheme 49). In the middle of this hole, a clearly visible front sight is held easily and accurately. The shooter's eye instinctively puts the front sight strictly in the center of the diopter hole (diopter) and fixes only two clearly visible points - the front sight and the target. The accuracy of shooting with a diopter sight is incomparably higher than with an open sight. But the diopter sight has a drawback - in poor lighting (even in cloudy weather), nothing becomes visible in its small hole. The situation is not saved by interchangeable diopters of large sizes. In addition, in combat conditions, when upturned earth and liquid mud fall from top to bottom at the most unpredictable moments, diopter holes are easily clogged and difficult to clean. Therefore, in the barbaric conditions of Russia, diopter sights on combat weapon did not take root. In addition, this sight has a reduced field of view, which reduces the aiming speed and is especially disadvantageous when shooting at moving targets.

Scheme 49. Diopter sight

Shooting accuracy is largely affected by target illumination. When shooting with an open or diopter sight, if the sun shines, say, on the right side, a reflection may appear on the right side of the front sight, which the shooter takes for the side of the front sight. In this case, the latter will be deflected to the left, which is why the bullets will also deflect to the left. For the same reason, if the sun is high or "the light is higher", the bullets will go lower. In bright sunlight, dark targets appear smaller. At the same time, it is more difficult to "hook" on the center of the target with the front sight of an open sight, and if you shoot "under the edge", then, despite the clearance between the front sight and the target, the bullets will still go much higher. Optical sights, which allow you to clearly see the dimensions of the target in any light, are devoid of these shortcomings.