A quick lession in marksmanship, the British Army way.
or
Why YOU can't shoot in an arc from 90 degrees to your left to 45 degrees to your right while lying down without moving.
The four principles of marksmanship are:-
The grip and position must be firm enough to support the weapon adequatly.
The weapons must point naturally towards the target.
Sight alignment, ie aiming must be correct.
The shot must be followed through.
Lets look at these point one at a time.
The grip and position must be firm enough to support the weapon adequatly.
This is your shooting position and how you hold the weapon. Your position and grip must support the weight of the weapon with out any undue stress, as well as be adequate to control the recoil when the shot if fired. Thats why we shot from the prone by choice, kneeling or sitting (I prefer sitting) next, a crouch if we must and standing to scare the birds. As an indication as to how must difference this makes to shooting I can hit a man sized non-moving target at 500m about 80% of the time when prone with the current British Army service rifle (L85A1), but my shooting is so degraded when standing that at 100m I'd expect to hit about 50% of the time, if that. This point also cover those who like to rest the weapon on the palm of their left hand and not grip the furniture of the weapon firmly. You'd love the look on these peoples gaces as they squeeze of their first 7.62 round and the rifle leaps about a foot of the hand.
The weapons must point naturally towards the target.
This is the reason you can shoot in an arc around you without moving. When you force a weapon to point at a target, your muscles tend to want to go back to there rest point. So as you fire the shot the rifle drifts in the direction and the round misses the aim point in the same direction, ie if your forcing your aim to the left, your rounds will tend towards the right side of the target. Some people can be very good at forcing a single shot and getting damned near on target, but your not going to group that way, and in my Army we only want people who can group to 120mm at 300m (and thats barely adequate shooting). When your shooting, if you have the time, you adjust your bodies position. A good way to see if your naturally point at the target is to aim, close your eyes and relax the weapon down, then bring it back into the aim with your eyes still closed, then see where the weapon is pointing. THAT is its natural aim point and you can adjust your position accordingly.
Sight alignment, ie aiming must be correct.
This is the one I have lease problem getting over to people. What this means is that the fore sight tip should be placed in the centre of the rear sight appature AND on the aim point AT THE SAME TIME. Its preety easy stuff and I'll assume you all know what I'm talking about here, afterall we all manage to hit something when playing INF ;c)
The shot must be followed through.
This is probably the hardest point to get across, and although I could spout my principles of marksmanship verbatum after basic training, it was about 3 years latter that I finally understood this point and went from being an average shot to a expert. The follow through is all the things you do from the moment you decide to squeeze the trigger. The first thing is to control your breathing, pausing it as you get your final sight picture. You the sqeeze the trigger, firing the round. Now comes the bit I didn't understand. You pause, with the trigger still squeezed and your breath still held. This stops you moving the weapon before the round has left the barrel. You then gently release the trigger and at the same time observe where the weapon is now aiming. Your round WILL have landed about in this point with a slight drift towards your original point of aim. If you've carried out priciple two correctly these two point are so close together it makes no difference. You start breathing normally again and prepare to fire another shot. At no point in this procedure do you move your position or that of the weapon, unless your need to go back to pinciple two because your not pointing naturally at the target. Even if you have a bolt actioned weapon you only move your right hand (I'm sorry for any southpaws out there but the Armys very discrimatory and only really caters for right handed shooting) to the bolt, work the action and return to the trigger grip. Your wouldn't even lift your right elbow because that disturbes the shooting position.
Obviously the above is somewhat modified in actual combat, and with type of application of fire being employed.
I hope this gives a useful insight into how military marksmanship is taught and applied, and I hope that people can see from this why the prone shooting stance in INF is correct by making you move your body when changing your point of aim.
or
Why YOU can't shoot in an arc from 90 degrees to your left to 45 degrees to your right while lying down without moving.
The four principles of marksmanship are:-
The grip and position must be firm enough to support the weapon adequatly.
The weapons must point naturally towards the target.
Sight alignment, ie aiming must be correct.
The shot must be followed through.
Lets look at these point one at a time.
The grip and position must be firm enough to support the weapon adequatly.
This is your shooting position and how you hold the weapon. Your position and grip must support the weight of the weapon with out any undue stress, as well as be adequate to control the recoil when the shot if fired. Thats why we shot from the prone by choice, kneeling or sitting (I prefer sitting) next, a crouch if we must and standing to scare the birds. As an indication as to how must difference this makes to shooting I can hit a man sized non-moving target at 500m about 80% of the time when prone with the current British Army service rifle (L85A1), but my shooting is so degraded when standing that at 100m I'd expect to hit about 50% of the time, if that. This point also cover those who like to rest the weapon on the palm of their left hand and not grip the furniture of the weapon firmly. You'd love the look on these peoples gaces as they squeeze of their first 7.62 round and the rifle leaps about a foot of the hand.
The weapons must point naturally towards the target.
This is the reason you can shoot in an arc around you without moving. When you force a weapon to point at a target, your muscles tend to want to go back to there rest point. So as you fire the shot the rifle drifts in the direction and the round misses the aim point in the same direction, ie if your forcing your aim to the left, your rounds will tend towards the right side of the target. Some people can be very good at forcing a single shot and getting damned near on target, but your not going to group that way, and in my Army we only want people who can group to 120mm at 300m (and thats barely adequate shooting). When your shooting, if you have the time, you adjust your bodies position. A good way to see if your naturally point at the target is to aim, close your eyes and relax the weapon down, then bring it back into the aim with your eyes still closed, then see where the weapon is pointing. THAT is its natural aim point and you can adjust your position accordingly.
Sight alignment, ie aiming must be correct.
This is the one I have lease problem getting over to people. What this means is that the fore sight tip should be placed in the centre of the rear sight appature AND on the aim point AT THE SAME TIME. Its preety easy stuff and I'll assume you all know what I'm talking about here, afterall we all manage to hit something when playing INF ;c)
The shot must be followed through.
This is probably the hardest point to get across, and although I could spout my principles of marksmanship verbatum after basic training, it was about 3 years latter that I finally understood this point and went from being an average shot to a expert. The follow through is all the things you do from the moment you decide to squeeze the trigger. The first thing is to control your breathing, pausing it as you get your final sight picture. You the sqeeze the trigger, firing the round. Now comes the bit I didn't understand. You pause, with the trigger still squeezed and your breath still held. This stops you moving the weapon before the round has left the barrel. You then gently release the trigger and at the same time observe where the weapon is now aiming. Your round WILL have landed about in this point with a slight drift towards your original point of aim. If you've carried out priciple two correctly these two point are so close together it makes no difference. You start breathing normally again and prepare to fire another shot. At no point in this procedure do you move your position or that of the weapon, unless your need to go back to pinciple two because your not pointing naturally at the target. Even if you have a bolt actioned weapon you only move your right hand (I'm sorry for any southpaws out there but the Armys very discrimatory and only really caters for right handed shooting) to the bolt, work the action and return to the trigger grip. Your wouldn't even lift your right elbow because that disturbes the shooting position.
Obviously the above is somewhat modified in actual combat, and with type of application of fire being employed.
I hope this gives a useful insight into how military marksmanship is taught and applied, and I hope that people can see from this why the prone shooting stance in INF is correct by making you move your body when changing your point of aim.