CBA Series Part 1 - Understand The Basics

Consistency Breeds Accuracy

Part 1

Understand The Basics

“Master the basics. Then practice them every day without fail. Small disciplines repeated with consistency everyday lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.”  

- John C. Maxwell

Being a sniper is a skill. While some have a natural ability, it is a skill that can be taught. Like anything learned, you start small and build on it, mastering one step at a time until you become an expert. This is achieved through conscious effort, starting small and building on gained knowledge and practiced skills. Through these deliberate actions, you develop habits. Over time, you become proficient, then skilled, and finally an expert in your chosen discipline.

Understanding and applying the basics is fundamental to whatever you choose to do. Concentrate on the small stuff! While individual basic skills may not amount to much, collectively they become significant.

Basic Marksmanship Principles

1.    The position and hold must be firm enough to support the weapon.

2.    The weapon must point naturally at the target (point of aim) without any undue physical effort.

3.    The sight alignment and sight picture must be correct.

4.    The shot must be released and followed through without disturbing the firer's position.

These four principles form the foundation of a sniper’s marksmanship ability. Snipers must apply these four principles in any given Final Firing Position to have any chance of success. These principles aren’t unique to a sniper; they are taught and practiced by every service person as part of their individual weapon training. These four principles apply to every handheld weapon system and are pertinent to many others, regardless of how the munitions are launched.

Knowing the basics isn’t enough. Being able to reel them off orally may score a few points in an exam or create an initial impression that you know what you’re about. However, you must understand them, understand what each means, and understand how to achieve each one. Understand how each principle supports the next and must be achieved before moving on to the next.

“People fail on application not the understanding.”

MMS Principle 1 - The position and hold must be firm enough to support the weapon. 

This is your foundation and must be solid enough to be sustainable for long periods. There are several facets to building a good firing position, and each supports the others. Getting one wrong or applying it improperly will negatively impact the others. When beginning, a new firer must be deliberate in building this position. By being slow and deliberate in the beginning, they develop speed over time. Muscle memory will then allow them to intuitively take up a firm, stable position that enables them to react quickly, adjust where necessary, and progress.

When starting a new venture, it's worth taking the time to understand what you need to put in place first. What are the pillars that will support you and why are they important? Conducting research or seeking advice will aid the process. Be deliberate in the beginning; practice will build confidence and ability. From a strong foundation, you will be able to adapt quicker. Understand where you will require strength in one area if the situation means you’re weaker in another.

MMS Principle 2 - The weapon must point naturally at the target (point of aim) without any undue physical effort.

Having invested time and effort into building a good position from which to engage your target, it would all be wasted effort if you aren't naturally aligned with the supporting elements. Even with years of experience, this is the one stage of the process that I still conscientiously apply. With years of repetition and experience, I can adopt a stable position in an instant. Taking a moment to confirm this at the start saves time in the future.

In the marksmanship world, it’s known as ‘test & adjust’. It’s a simple process that assures you are oriented correctly. Simply close your eyes and take two normal breaths. On the natural exhale pause of the second breath, open your eyes. Where the weapon is pointed now is where it is naturally aligned. It is very rare that this is centred on the target, and some minor adjustments are required to the position and hold. It’s important to adjust now, before you go any further. Although you will get an initial shot off, you will have to adjust subsequently, or worse, repeatedly miss your target. Take time to save time by developing a process to ensure you are set up and aiming correctly.

It’s easy to become distracted or to be influenced by others trying to convince us what we need when they are really servicing their own needs and requirements. If you have set strong foundations and are pointing in the direction you need to be, then not only will it look right, but it will also feel right. This doesn’t mean it will be easy or require no effort, but when correct, everything will be working together to support each other to achieve the one aim, ensuring you aren’t wasting time, resources, and opportunity.

MMS Principle 3 - The sight alignment and sight picture must be correct.

Having built up a stable and supported position and confirmed the weapon is pointing naturally at the target, now is the time to focus on the finer details of the equipment and the process. MMS Principle 3 encompasses the ‘aiming process’, a relationship between the firer's eye, the weapon sight, and the target. It is further broken down into sight alignment and sight picture.

Sight alignment is defined as "the clearly focused tip of the foresight, horizontally and vertically centred in the rear sight aperture". For a scoped weapon sight, this equates to having no scope shadow. Any error in sight alignment with the firer is proportionally increased on the target. The definition of sight picture is "correct sight alignment superimposed onto your point of aim (the target)". If sight alignment is correct, the round will impact wherever it was placed on the target. If sight alignment contains any error and the crosshair is positioned on the target (sight picture), the round will not impact there. It will, in fact, hit the target elsewhere, possibly less effectively, or may well miss the target altogether, depending on the degree of error with the sight alignment. Therefore, sight alignment is 1000% more important than sight picture.

A bit of self-awareness is required here. If you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing at your end with factors that are within your control, then don’t be surprised if you don’t achieve exactly what you set out to do. What you do and how you conduct yourself has a significant, and often disproportional, impact on what you are trying to achieve and how others view you. If you can keep focused on the things you can control while remaining aware of the factors you don’t control, including what your target might be doing, then you still significantly influence the chances of your success.

MMS Principle 4 - The shot must be released and followed through without disturbing the firer's position.

You've meticulously prepared your firing position, aligned yourself with the target, and perfected your aim. Now, it's time to take the shot!

Remember, you miss every shot you don't take. After dedicating time and energy to the process, the final, crucial step is to squeeze the trigger. Nothing happens without that action.

A sniper follows through by maintaining their position, allowing the natural implications of their shot to unfold. The impact of the shot and the sniper's subsequent actions are a true measure of their effectiveness.

In life, following through means doing what you say you will do and holding yourself accountable. You won't always get it right, and that's perfectly fine, if you learn and adjust. By consistently following through, you build a strong reputation and character, which fosters confidence in yourself and trust from others. You'll feel good knowing you consistently act in alignment with your values.

Summary

No matter how experienced you are, the basics remain extant. Time and practice will allow you to become more efficient in their application; you ignore them at your peril. Unless you are continuously applying them, then you need to practice at every opportunity. Should things not be happening in your life the way you would want them to, then you can’t go far wrong by returning to the basics, looking to see if your foundations are still intact, and taking the time to be deliberate in your actions, making sure each individual action is supporting and setting the conditions for the next natural progression.

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