Shooting From Cover.
 

Ive been playing Paintball recently and I rely on snapshooting, Recently when i got back in to airsoft, I completely forgot how to shoot from your cover, is there a technique on shooting from cover and how to pop out and back in? I found out my Gun was to big for shooting ot of cover easily.

Any tips, body positions would be great.

There really isn't a trick to it, but one thing I can think of is distance from cover. Don't get so close to your cover that you're having a "personal moment" with it; maintaining a good standoff distance of a few feet if possible allows you to maneuver yourself and your weapon, as well it reduces the chance of catching a ricochet.

Also yes, many airsoft rifles are long and ill suited to urban ops or fighting in built up areas. If you are finding yourself playing at locations with such terrain you may want to consider a shorter weapon more suited to them.

Leave now
..........................Just kidding.

I agree with Kokanee. Don't get sucked in to your cover and try to offset yourself when you can. I found it hard at first but youll get better with practice.

Urban prone is your best friend.

If you are behind a low cover that is wide enough to squat behind, I like the adopt a wide squat position that allow me to lower my silhouet behind the cover and still maintain a confortable to maintain position yet still retainning the possibility to move out quick. This "wide squat" position is ideal when you need to see or shoot over cover that is too high for a normal kneeling position.

But remember that if you can shoot from the side of your cover, it's way better than doing it from over it. Since you generally silhouet yourself a lot less.

I also see a lot of people going "hollywood" on their cover, like putting their back to the cover, weapon in the air. Never do that unless you want to look cool for a picture. But you won't be cool for real.

It's prefered to keep facing the threat direction, no mather what cover you are behind.

here's a neat little retreat trick ive taught myself over the years:

if you need to gtfo from that cover, this is the safest way if you have no team mates to give you covering fire:

1: raise your rifle, keep it shouldered at all times
2: stand up if you arent already
3: start walking back with your rifles shouldered while facing the opposition
4: He's not gunna see you because obviously, you're still behind that cover, just however many feet behind it now, out of range
5: profit

as for popping out of cover. Give yourself a comfortable space of movement, just quickly pop out a few inches to get a minimally clear shot, shoot, and pop back in.

If he lowers his head, then you have him in suppression, no need to pop back into your cover. Now do whatever you need to do, flank or retreat.

Whenever possible shoot from around cover. Come out of cover from the sides not the top. This has the effect of being able to lead with you gun as opposed to your head. Also don't come out of cover to shoot from the same place over and over this will allow those engaging you to just orient their weapons on you and wait for movement.

All I know comes from the Magpul DVDs. Nothing's worth the real deal.

Funny to see how much it works for us too.

Non-telegraphing movement!
 

I would agree with everyone above, don't roll out from cover to face the enemy, takes too long to aguire your target. Don't pop out from the same location over and over again because your just telegraphing your movements. One well timed shot and your done. Move around put a bunch of fire from one side and move to a different location. If your quick and silent, s/he'll be pointing and laying fire where you just were not where you moved too. It'll take a real pro to really catch up to your new location with the end that shoots from where you were to where you are.

So what's the standard for if you shoot righty and are shooting around the left side of cover? If that makes sense.

switch hands

Switch shoulders too!

You're all missing the 'press Q or E to lean out from cover' angle! :D

I've always subscribed to the notion of lying down prone. Your profile is made significantly harder to hit and prone allows you to rest the magazine on the ground (not dig a little hole and half bury it like some kind of odd rifle-stand) and therefore giving a bit more of a stable platform to fire from.

lol sig saucer

Anyway, what little advice I can give to the original inquiry is that you want to minimize your exposure time while getting off aimed shots.

For example, you're behind waist-high cover. You need to play pop-up shooter to get your shots off. You know what window/doorway/large tree your target is hiding behind.

Adopt a wide stance parallel to the direction you want to shoot. Moving your feet apart will lower your overall height. Then crouch down a little, bending at the waist and knees. Take aim in the rough direction that will match your bearing to the target if you were actually above this waist-high cover. Then rise up smoothly, acquire, shoot, drop.

The point of this is to be as close to a proper firing position as possible while you move in order to acheive better aim with less focus time on the target. If you're already in the firing posture when you acquire your target, then you will be able to put rounds on him that much faster.

This isn't official or anything, this is just what I do and I get pretty decent results with it.

Also, I must suggest not popping up in the same spot in cover more than two or three times if you can help it. I've played games with a guy who would find a piece of cover, hide behind it and go through the 'popup, shoot, cover, two, three, four, popup, shoot, cover, two, three, four..' routine like clockwork. Avoid doing that for obvious reasons.

When shooting from cover, always move back and lean outwards dont hug your cover like its your baby, you dont need to, just as long u got something between your enemy and you its fine, more room the better as you have space for your gun to fire from, if you stick too close its clumsy and ur chances of being shot is higher, also learn to move from cover to cover shooting from one place lets the enemy know where you are, you need to relocate from time to time.

no rule that says the AV'ers are obligated to verify retards

A: Stuck behind small obstruction (wall, car, etc) while being shot at:
1) Tell team mate to watch one end of obstruction while you take the other
2) Raise foot
3) Boot team mate firmly in ass so he goes out past the end of the wall
4) Split second later pop out from your side
5) Take pop shots at any target you see
6) Dive back behind cover
7) If enemy are still alive and shooting go to next step
8) If Team mate survives, repeat after you tell him you wont do it again
9) If team mate doesn't survive then move on to next step
10) Lift team mate's body onto it's knees and kick it out again and repeat steps 4 through 6 as necessary.
11) Be sure to randomly switch sides you kick team mate out of
12) If team mate survives steps 1 through 6 but takes off leaving you alone proceed to next step
13) Eat sidearm

I like 13

1-9 are real :D

I'm waiting for the member to speak up and give me crap for it again :p

13 is totally fake because I didn't have ammo left for my Beretta so I just surrendered. :(

Thats the best idea ever, did you get this from one of those very informative videos those two punks make?
........Jokes :D

if we educated those youtube-airsofters... maybe they will take their videos down.

http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showpos...8&postcount=45 :D

hahaha thanks i saw that before

yes they are real! I've done it too! ... and yet people (even the same ones) still run with me :D

although it's gotten to the point now.. I don't have to shove them.. I just tell them to run...

*looks up, with side arm in mouth* ... wait, you mean, 13 aint real?

Had a rule like that at a game : if ennemy tries to make you prisonner, don't fake a hara kiri... I didn't fake it, bullet in the head :D

A friend told me I was a bit hardheaded afterwards...

Always try and stay below the horizon. if the cover is about chest high or anything higher, shoot lower to the ground, popping out only small parts of your body. Also, try and keep your elbows in, and down. If you are in a lot of cqb, you should learn to be ambidextrous with your gun.

Surprised no one has mentioned this, when popping out of cover try to have your weapon already up and ready to fire (Best if looking down your sights if you know where you're target is). The half second needed to bring your weapon up or down can cost you. Let alone the next half second to acquire and aim for you're target.

I'll take a slightly different thinking process on this. I am making the assumption we are mainly talking about outdoor non-urban environment... Forests, with mixed terrain and that we are engaged in direct action with an enemy force. I've always trained to crawl to a firing position in which I CAN fire upon OPFOR. Popping your head up, coming from one side or the other etc... all lend to OPFOR lighting you up. In addition, you shouldn't be a lone gunfighter anyway, trading fire with the enemy, which seems to be what airsoft typically degrades to. You should always be working as part of a team, with coordinated fire and an objective. If you find you are on your own, you are pretty much combat ineffective and should regroup with other players. There is no one perfect way to do things like this. So bottom-line, keep your head down, return lots of fire and if you cant, crawl until you can, and work with your team so you CAN move from cover and shoot ultimately overwhelming the enemy.

also if u are able to pin ur enemy down behind his bunker move to a new position while he cant see and wait for him to pop out to look for u and shoot him. preferably move to cover more lateral view of his position so wen he pops out to look for yo in ur old pos u will have a full target

another really simple strat is cover shots for ur teammate thats very importanted if you and ur team want to move out

One thing to watch out for, which I learned from being a sniper, is if you have the upper hand, DON'T GO BACK BEHIND COVER.
If your aimed at someone, and ready to shoot, and THEY go back behind cover, you definitely shouldn't go back behind cover yourself since you'll lose the advantage.

And remaining calm is paramount. Many times I've been under full auto fire and still managed to take out my target simply because they're panicking and I'm not. Full auto on AEG's is inaccurate enough as is without you shaking in fear. Stay calm, aim, and try to use semi auto as much as possible.

And if you encounter someone who's an excellent marksman, don't try to have a sniper battle with them because your gonna lose. No matter how good you think your cover is, an excellent marksmen will be able to shoot anything they can see. The proper way to deal with them is from multiple angles. I know I can't accurately engage 2 targets spread more than 30 degrees apart at the same time with a bolt action rifle, but nobody knows that so keep that to yourself lol