Got a Real World Weapons or Armour Question? Mk XII

[GnomeFighter]

Question: How much of the skills needed to shoot accurately are shared between different weapons? How different are special situations like sniping from regular use?

Situation is more important than type. I know I can pick up most guns and bows and set them up and shot at a target with some degree of accuracy with little more than a few moments familiarisation with the sighting system and a few shots to get my eye in to the characteristics of that weapon. Once you have the basic understanding of how to fire a weapon, relaxing, breath slowly, don't force it, those skills are very transferable. Guns are easy to get somewhere near the target if you have some basic training. Bows, less so due to the phyical input, but once you have the muscles and skills you can transfer those.

It is the last few % that comes in to play with further training and setting up etc.

As for "special situations" I would not call sniping "special" in shooting terms. Many hunters and sports shooters have skills on par with snipers. Snipers do have other skills, and often combine the acuracy of good target shooters with the outdoors skills of a good hunter and throw in allot of the skills of a good soldier too. A good target shooter should be able to match the acuracy of a military sniper but would not be able to identify a good place to set up.

In terms of acuracy on combat situations (both forces and police) the skills are transferable, it is still a case of point the open end at the target. The diffrence comes with being able to USE those skills under pressure. Target shooters, hunters and, for that matter, snipers have a very diffrent set of stressors than someone in a fire fight. This however is not related to the weapon you are using. If you panic with a pistol you will panic with a shotgun and use both of them just as badly.