If it's not tactical it's not practical. That's what they say in the gun culture. The same holds true in revolutionary/clandestine operations; if an item or technique is not tactically sound, i.e. maximized killing, minimized being killing then ditch it. If your gun is gonna jam up every five shots, you better find a better gun fast. Of course if it does jam it's still better than a pointed stick or throwing rocks. That is one of the biggest reason I advocate the use of AK-47 and AK-variants. But that reliability won't mean squat if you can't hit what you are shooting at. Update: I redid some of this article after re-reading the article, I kinda got some things confused in the first go around.
Sighting in an AK is a pain in the ass, requiring the use of a special tool and a hammer. I read an account of training Iraqi security forces in marksmanship. They sighted their rifles a little low and were taught to fire in short controlled bursts. Because of this, the worst that could happen is that the first couple of round will skip up and as the rifle rises due to recoil the successive rounds will hit their target directly. This is far preferable to the bullets going right over the enemy's head. They also cleaned their rifle with a mixture of motor oil and diesel fuel, with no reports of flaming rifles.
The author of the article said that insurgents just dump ammo firing from the hip, subscribing to the "spray and pray" philosophy of aiming, better trained soldiers will drop you with a couple of shots while you wildly spray automatic fire. Don't shoot in a particular style just to look cool, like holding your handgun sideways to look like 50 Cent.
See also this break down of shooting positions.
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They sighted their rifles a little low and were taught to fire in short controlled bursts, aiming at the ground right in front of the enemy. The idea is that the first couple of round will skip up and as the rifle rises due to recoil will hit them.
Do you recommend this tactic of shooting an AK also?
In an urban environment, yes. You can't bounce bullets off of dirt. If one trains more, a better technique would be to direct short bursts at the enemy's central mass (heart, lungs, head). Better yet would be single shots to the head, but that would take more skill than I and most people have, especially with the AK's less than perfect accuracy.
When you fire on full auto you have to deal with muzzle rise. hence aiming low on full auto. you still aim at your target just low. you not trying to skip rounds of the deck
The author seemed to think that skipping rounds off the deck was preferable to shooting over the enemy's head. It sounded like he developed the method as a compromise that worked for the often ill trained Iraqis who were used to less conventional shooting techniques. This is a problem that many people encounter in the Middle East and Africa; their is a cultural resistance to ideas like using the rifle's sights, holding it to your cheek etc. It was in this context that the author developed this shooting technique.
I have heard of this 'bouncing' technique applied with vicious effect by sailors armed with shotguns. The idea being that a load of buckshot, bounced off of a steel deck, would give a wide, chaotic pattern that would be directed at an assailants abdominal region over a good span of distance. I had never heard of this tactic used with rifles before, but it seems reasonable, if not optimal.
Police use this technique of bouncing/skipping when using some "less than lethal" shotgun rounds. Footage from occupy oakland move in day on #j28 illustrate this.
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