Types of shooting from short-barreled weapons.

Types of shooting from short-barreled weapons.

Types of shooting from short-barreled weapons

In fiction or specialized literature, in the jargon of professionals dealing with firearms, you can hear terms that denote various types of shooting («fire», as they often say). This implies a classification of these types.

If we turn to classical interpretations, for example, to army sources, then the types of shooting are classified by tactical purpose, direction, intensity and methods. By tactical purpose, there are concentrated and dagger fire; by direction, flank, frontal and cross; by intensity, single, short and long bursts, continuous.

To determine the types of shooting from short-barreled weapons (pistols, revolvers, tactical (assault) pistols, submachine guns), the author offers his own classification, perhaps somewhat free in relation to traditional interpretations.

This or that type of shooting is determined not only by the shooter's training, the tactical situation and the technical capabilities of the weapon, but also, above all, by the policy of using firearms, which, in turn, is based on legislation.

Although the activities of various security agencies are based on common legislation, in particular, the Law on Weapons (Article 24), their representatives nevertheless profess different policies on the use of weapons, and at the level of numerous departmental instructions, these policies may diverge diametrically. The tactics of a bodyguard, who, first of all, needs to save the person being guarded, even at the expense of his own safety, are strikingly different from the tactics of an army special forces soldier, who deals only with a potential enemy, or from the tactics of a specialist from a counter-terrorist group, who must take into account the likelihood of defeating hostages or civilians.

We will try to find common ground that would unite the often different firearms use policies for different categories of law-abiding shooters.

The purpose of this type of shooting is to warn the enemy of the seriousness of your intentions. Not wanting to shed blood unnecessarily, you demonstrate your readiness to use lethal force if the enemy does not obey you.

The policy of using weapons, according to the current legislation, requires a warning, except in cases where delay in using weapons threatens your or someone else's life.

A warning shot can be fired over the head or under the feet of the enemy for the purpose of a stronger psychological impact. But it is necessary to take into account the possibility of accidental damage to the enemy or random persons. The cause of accidental damage may be the wrong choice of sight, unintentional movement, ricochet.

You shouldn't assume that, having fired the first shot at a criminal to kill for safety, you can send the second one into the air to justify your actions in court. In most cases, a ballistic examination will accurately determine the sequence of shots.

(fire at the extremities). This type of shooting is practiced when it is necessary to detain the enemy, to take him alive. As a rule, it is carried out if the enemy is not armed with a firearm and does not pose a mortal danger at that moment to you or others, but his actions carry a potential threat. For example, the enemy is armed with a bladed weapon, poses an undoubted threat to life and health and at the same time does not intend to obey anyone's demands and disarm. Moreover, the distance to the enemy gives you some advantage when you have a firearm, which you can lose if you delay even a little.

Let's say an adversary approaches you or someone else with the clear intention of using a weapon. In this situation, after a possible warning, the use of a weapon to detain is justified. If you shoot a drug addict in the head from 15 meters away, rushing at you with a knife, it is quite possible that the court will show you that at such a distance you were not in mortal danger, and the question of exceeding the measures of necessary self-defense is legitimate.

As a rule, shooting to detain is carried out at the extremities or the lower part of the body. At the arms, in the shoulder — in order to disarm the criminal, or at the legs (including the pelvic area) in order to immobilize him.

It can be considered as an extreme measure of armed conflict, self-defense in situations when the elimination of the enemy prevents dangerous, life-threatening consequences for you or others. It is usually carried out on vital areas of the human body. This is always a targeted type of fire, it is opened with full awareness of the legitimacy of one's actions and possible responsibility.

It is carried out when you have enough ammunition. Its purpose is to prevent the enemy from firing accurately in situations where, for some reason, you are unable to fire effectively at the enemy. For example, you are moving, running (rolling) from cover to cover, or the battle has captured you in the open, and your only salvation is in maneuver. You are constantly moving in search of cover, while being forced to fire from intermediate, unstable positions, which, in all likelihood, will not be accurate. The goal is one — to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of your vulnerability at this moment.

Before leaving cover to change position, it is also better to cover yourself with a shot, to force the enemy to make a tactical pause. When he involuntarily «darts» behind his cover, «gets lost» from the sight, — you can have time to change position.

Harassing fire is also used in cases where the aiming range of your weapon does not allow for effective lethal fire, the enemy is outside the zone of impact, armed with a longer-range weapon, confidently pouring fire on you, but at the same time he continues to be in the lethal zone of your bullets. For example, the declared effective range of the PM is 50 meters, and the lethal range of a shot is 350 meters, i.e. a distance from 50 to 350 meters theoretically allows you to conduct harassing fire (in practice, it must be recognized that in such a situation both the lower and upper limits should be greatly reduced).

By conducting harassing fire, you can try to gain time until help arrives or give your comrades the opportunity to retreat, covering them, and in some cases, hide yourself.

The purpose of this type of shooting is to «suppress» the enemy, i.e. to deprive him of the opportunity to fire effectively. If there is a need to storm an object held by an armed and firing enemy, it is necessary to create a superiority of forces and means, the greatest density of fire, making maximum use of the capabilities of weapons and the tactical situation. Here, immediately before the assault group is thrown or during the assault, suppressive fire is conducted on the enemy until the moment when the members of the assault group engage in close combat.

Suppressive fire is conducted from the second echelon with weapons that are, as a rule, more powerful and have a longer range than the weapons of the assault group of the first echelon.

as well as harassing fire, refers to non-aiming types of shooting.

This type of shooting is used as preemptive fire, when, having found yourself in a sudden oncoming battle, it is necessary to shoot before the enemy. Although in most cases, aimed fire is required to reliably defeat the enemy, certain situations require the ability to shoot without using sighting devices.

This skill does not depend on the natural abilities of the shooter — shooters are not born — but above all on muscle memory, developed through long shooting training sessions conducted at different distances and at different angles in relation to the target, when the shooter reflexively (without making any conscious mental effort) accurately raises the pistol, while practically not using sighting devices.

The so-called index finger effect is developed. The shooter aims the weapon at the target as naturally as most people do with their index finger, i.e. the weapon becomes, as shooters say, an extension of the hand. Of course, this method is usually used at close range (up to two outstretched arms) and at extremely close ranges (up to 7-10 meters). In the first case, this is the so-called point-blank or off-hand shooting. At the same time, as the distance increases, aiming follows the following pattern: extremely close range — off-hand shooting — without aiming.

As a rule, the shooter fixes his gaze only on the target, a stressful situation forces the shooter to absorb all his attention with a close enemy, his actions, therefore, here, at best, the direction of the hand (hands) and, accordingly, the barrel is fixed in the mind.

With a gradual increase in distance and, accordingly, with the increase in the practical skills of the shooter and the degree of his composure, aiming is done along the barrel (the barrel on the line of sight of the target at the level of the shooter's eyes between it and the target), then — with partial use of sighting devices. First of all, the position of the front sight in relation to the target is fixed and then a fully controlled shot is made using the entire set of sighting devices and fulfilling other conditions for an accurate shot.

Such shooting can be used not only depending on the distance and number of opponents and, therefore, on the availability of time for an adequate response, but also on a number of other conditions. In particular, intuitive shooting is used in conditions of limited visibility: in conditions of complete darkness, twilight, when you are exposed to oncoming light that suddenly flashed in the dark, or are blinded by an injury, your eyes are covered with something, etc.

The human body is designed in such a way that the insensitivity of one sense organ is usually compensated by the improved activity of another. Thus, in poor visibility, hearing becomes more acute, and this happens at the physiological level, unconsciously. You just need to learn to use this property. In addition, in conditions of darkness (for example, at night) and extraneous noises, as a rule, are less, therefore, it is easier to classify all suspicious ones. This is where intuitive shooting skills will help. Remember the episode in the film «The Bodyguard» with K. Costner, when the main character pursues a criminal in the night forest. What does he do when he understands that the chances of neutralizing the enemy in such a situation are negligible? The crunch of branches under his own feet, the flickering of light and shadow from trees, foliage and branches completely block his perception of the environment. He freezes, dropping to his knees (taking a stable position and, if possible, presenting the smallest area for defeat), and closes his eyes, which are unnecessary in this situation and only distract him from perceiving the surrounding environment, i.e. he consciously sharpens his hearing, thus trying to «figure out» the enemy.

Some may find this episode too cinematic, far-fetched, but this situation demonstrated the possibilities of intuitive shooting. If, upon entering a room, you hear the click of a cocked trigger, a threatening shout or a shot behind you, then, remembering the location of the front door (possible shelters that you probably did not have time to thoroughly inspect), you can shoot instantly, practically without seeing the enemy, using the skills of intuitive shooting. Naturally, in such a situation it is implied that, in addition to you and the enemy, your partner or an outsider cannot be in the line of your fire.

It is carried out by several shooters at one target in order to create maximum firepower, density of fire, i.e. conditions for the most effective destruction of the target or at least not to give the enemy the opportunity to «stick his nose out» from behind cover and cause you any harm.

More effective. It is carried out in relation to the enemy (from different angles) like dagger fire and from dominant heights, which leaves him no chance even with cover.

provides for a certain specified frequency of shots. For example, shooting on the move «at a step», or the highest possible high-speed rapid fire, where the time for producing the next shot is limited only by the design of the self-loading (semi-automatic) pistol itself and is determined by a special trigger control technique, the so-called «finger sticking». However, this is already rapid fire, which is discussed below.

is usually carried out by a single shooter (earlier, in the days of single-shot muskets, ranks of musketeers replaced each other, taking turns firing rapidly, giving the ranks that had fired a chance to reload their weapons), in order to create the maximum density of fire, close to shooting from an automatic weapon (i.e., burst firing). Accordingly, the probability of hitting the enemy will increase significantly, while, unlike an automatic burst, where it is extremely difficult to control each subsequent bullet in the series (there is a scattering with an excess of the target dimensions), when firing single shots like rapid fire, an experienced shooter is able, even at a very high rate, to control the accuracy of each shot.

A feature of shooting from a pistol (revolver) is that at close ranges in open terrain, typical for short-barreled weapons, the number of shots between changes of position does not exceed 2-3, although, provided that firing is conducted from behind reliable cover, the shooter in some situations can afford a longer shooting. It is noteworthy that for submachine guns (machine guns) the situation is similar: it is always preferable to shoot in short bursts with cutoffs of 2-3 shots due to the phenomenon of dispersion, characteristic of automatic weapons. As a result of recoil (tossing the barrel), it does not have time to return to its original position corresponding to the aiming line, and each subsequent shot gives an error that is greater, the higher the rate of fire. Therefore, it is often preferable to shoot from automatic weapons (including long-barreled ones) in a quick single mode.

Examples of criminal use of this type of shooting:

1. The assassination attempt by a sniper on the vice-governor of St. Petersburg M. Manevich in August 1997. They shot practically blindly, i.e. without seeing the target, but knowing exactly where it was located in the car, and in single-shot mode, although the weapon allowed for automatic fire. Of the 10 bullets supposedly fired, 8 hit the target, practically without injuring the other passengers of the car (the driver got off with, as they say, a fright, and M. Manevich's wife received a tangential head wound).

2. The assassination attempt on US President R. Reagan in March 1981. Then, having wormed his way into a crowd of reporters, which allowed him to get very close to his intended victim, J. Hinckley fired six bullets from a small-caliber revolver before his Secret Service bodyguard D. McCartney jumped and crushed him. According to D. McCartney's recollections, the criminal fired six shots within a second and a half. The bodyguard rushed toward him at the second shot and fell upon him at the sixth. Four people were wounded, including the president twice — a light tangential scratch from a bullet ricocheting off a spent car and a serious wound, in which the bullet, having pierced the lung, fell just two centimeters short of the heart. This is just an example of a fairly effective rapid fire from a short-barreled weapon, showing what kind of trouble a small, blunt-nosed .22 caliber revolver can cause at close range and in a significant crowd of people.

We have given a classification of types of shooting for short-barreled weapons (as well as other types of weapons). We could continue this listing, but it would rather turn into a description of the technique and methods of shooting, but this is another topic.

Efficient fire, depending on the specific tactical situation, will allow you to defeat the enemy in a fleeting firefight. An experienced, cold-blooded shooter, knowing the laws of combat, comes out of it as a winner, while a confused one professes the only principle — «Spray fire all around and pray to God to stay alive,» as they say in America, or, as we aptly noted about such shooters, «shoots into the white light like a penny.» Everyone becomes a victim of such shooting, except those they want to hit.