What's your 'rapid fire' technique?

[Tower75]

Hi, all.

This question is born of personal experience, and I thought I'd ask those of more experience than I, so here's the situation;

I'm familiar with the breathing technique, and all of my shooting is of the prone, gallery type out to 600 yards at the moment. This slow, prescission-style shooting is fine for me, however, if and when I've had to fire rapid (at falling targets, etc.), I've always gotten into a bit of a flap.

I'm a soft civvy, and all of my shooting technique is self taught. Whenever I have to shoot raid I either try and take a deep breath then let out half for each shot, which doesn't work when shooting rapid, or I hold my breath and just blat away. Neither breathing solution works that well as I tend to think more about breathing and trying not to run out of O2 while I cycle the bolt then sighting and shooting.

So, what do you guys do? Is there a preferred technique to it; is there many? I dunno. As I say, thought I'd fling it out to those more experienced then I.

[dodgyrog]

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast - courtesy of the Shooter.
It works!

[Burner]

I squeeze the trigger, then let off when the magazine is empty.

[Chuck]

Burner, you're a bad man, stop rubbing it in :lol:

On semi auto I just feather the trigger as it sets back back until I feel it reset and then pull again. Avoids "mashing". I am a consistent 0.17 - 0.2 seconds between shots - on target. Doubt I'll get much faster as the time taken for the action to cycle and my slowing reactions is a factor.

On pump action, I use the recoil phase to cycle the action so that next shot is ready as gun come son target, typically 3 shots in 1.3 seconds, 4 shots in 1.5, all electronically timed.

[Christel]

I squeeze the trigger, then let off when the magazine is empty.

Exactly my technique when in Denmark :lol:

[Sandgroper]

First question - what is your definition of 'rapid fire'? How many rounds per minute are you hoping to achieve?

Whatever the case, you'll need to practice.

I prefer to get into rhythm when shooting and I don't actually like to shoot one and wait for the target to go down and back up!

I find that once I get into a rhythm everything becomes part of the firing cycle and I don't have to think about it - but practice is the key and I need more or it. I haven't shot the Steyr at all this year so my rapid is going to be pathetic!

BTW, I was never taught how to 'rapid fire', you were just expected to up your rate of fire when given the order to do so.

HTH

[froggy]

Salut ,

First I am absolutly no expect in the field & I have never tried straight-pull rapid fire.

If we start from scratch, it sounds very basic but rapid fire is the balance of 3 elements : Distance + Speed + Accuracy , ie : in order to maintain accuracy, you will have to adapt your speed of firing to the distance. The further away your target is the slower you rate of fire becomes in order to keep on target .

Every shot has to be aimed. Keep in mind that the priority is to hit the target not to shoot fast, sounds obvious but can be quickly forgotten. Then the way you take aim can save you time. In pistol combat/dynamic shooting, at contact distance, you will be using the full lenght of the slide to take an aim neglecting the front & back sights, moving back when your pistol feels smaller than the target you use the front sight over the back sight full with. Moving back you revert to taking aim with the normal front sight in the v noch of the back sight .

Chuck is spot-on how the trigger re-set control is so important and needs to be worked on.

Your post draw on me that I actually never think about my breathing, but I shoot while breathing out. It works for me .

Now your body position is crucial. IMO the biggest time "wasted" is not the actual trigger action but coming back on target in-between shoots. Your body position is the factor that will enable you to control your weapon and minimise the gun movements, hence shortening the time taken to go back on target.

It is far more difficult to get rid-of bad habits than acquiring good ones . A solid and sound foundation can be learnt over W-E training.

I hope that helps.

[Christel]

I prefer to get into rhythm when shooting and I don't actually like to shoot one and wait for the target to go down and back up!

I know exactly what you mean which is why I very often ask for the target to stay up for 5 shots and then ask for the area I have hit to be indicated.

[Chuck]

froggie, for pistol / carbine we teach

0-5 yards front sight only is sufficient (flash sight picture)

5-15: rear sight comes into play, not a full sight picture but front and rear sights are aligned

15+ full clear sight picture.

From draw the faster you get that thing out the holster and on target the more time you have to aim, even 1/10th of a second counts.

A typical draw and two shots from holster on target at up to 5 yards is around 1.00-1.2 seconds that opens to around 2.25 seconds at 25 yards.

[froggy]

Re- Chuck,
Once again you are correct, I neglected the holster phase as Tower, using a shoulder held weapon, would be in either contact or engagement stance