(October 19, 2021 at 12:14 am)Anomalocaris Wrote:(October 18, 2021 at 2:02 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: Full auto is for crowd control, not for hitting a single target (unless the target is close). It is a support weapon, and is very effective at killing, when there are many targets. It also suppresses enemy fire.
For single targets at any distance, you want semi-auto. You will re-aim after each shot.
In military use, full auto is for suppressive fire, design to force the enemy to take cover, not to pick off individual soldiers. Nonetheless automatic suppressive fire aimed in the general direction of the enemy likely accounts for much more enemy casualty than individual soldiers trying to pick off enemy with aimed fire.
Individual soldiers making aimed shot is not just that effective a means of hitting the enemy.
I was in the Australian army for two years. I served with the First Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in Malaysia and Singapore. This was considered a holiday posting, wives and kids came too. I thought not being shot at was just dandy. Active service but not war service, so I'm not a vet.
Automatic setting was seldom used on rifles***. The weapon for automatic fire was the M60 machine gun. Unlike the movies, that weapon was fired in 4 round bursts. Any more and the air cooled weapon got very hot and a round could explode in the breach. It fired a cone of fire. That means it would hit whatever you were aiming at plus everything around it.
*** Our generic weapon was the semi automatic 7.62 SLR. It could be turned into a temporary fully automatic weapon in about 30 seconds. Not recommended and you would be in deep doo doo if caught.
