Shortcommings of the "spray and pray" philosophy

[Pathfinder]

Guys!!!

Y'all are missing the point. Spray and pray is a well-known ammo waster. Haz seems to have stumbled (Hazaritas involved? ? ? ?) across one reason why.

What you see with spray and pray is part of the transition from aimed single shot infantry weapons to the advent of the select fire or full-auto infantry weapon. In Korea, we had M1 Garands, M1 carbines, and BARs in SAW role. In Nam - a short decade later we started with M-14s and transitioned to M-16s.

As mentioned previously, it has value in keeping peoples' heads down allowing other troops to feel out the enemies' strength and find an alternate path around them. And it has changed squad level tactics too to deal with the volume of lead coming down range.  I remember reading Blackhawk Down and being struck by the comment that when moving down and alley you do not hug the walls that formed the alley. When the BGs shot at you, the bullets would all cluster and travel down the surface of the wall, negating the spread of the spray and pray somewhat. A foot or two out from the wall was much safer.

There is a reason why many modern automatic weapons are now select-fire to 3-round bursts rather than full-auto. Lesson learned.

[twyacht]

Haz is just trying to save ammo and make the shots count..

He's training again....



Get em Haz!!!

[tombogan03884]

 The theory behind the StG 44 and AK was that if your assault force is hosing the landscape it will keep the defenders heads down until you can get close enough to switch to Semi and apply EFFECTIVE fire.
Machine guns on the other hand, are not used on individuals, but Group targets where the dispersal of bullets ( one hole accuracy in an MG is a bad thing ) establishes what is called a "Beaten zone" which allows one burst to hit multiple targets.

Other than fun shooting, or historical  purposes Full auto has no practical use for the individual civilian.

[m25operator]

" being struck by the comment that when moving down and alley you do not hug the walls that formed the alley. When the BGs shot at you, the bullets would all cluster and travel down the surface of the wall, negating the spread of the spray and pray somewhat. A foot or two out from the wall was much safer. " +1

Spot on. Rob Pincus demonstrated this at Valhalla on SGallery. You can make a bank shot to the corner pocket pretty on purpose with a bullet, same thing with car hoods and doors.  Never hug your cover, unless your sleeping.

[Ping]

Fully auto is a fun and exhillirating experience. But I would choose semi-auto to save on ammo. Just my personal opinion. When I left Italy, where I carried 240 rounds, to the United States, where I carried 120 I almost worried about having enough ammo. Then I realized what I could do with a M-16 on semi-auto and how accurate I was. But firing fully auto was best laying it horizontal so you did not have a rise vertically to wipe out a line of swarming insurgents/bad guys scenario. Controlled bursts, not the tri-burst bullcrap, was best. Again, just my personal opinion.

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