The military uses a lot of acronyms to help with the teaching process, and they seem to be helpful. Perhaps, though, I’ve been so thoroughly brainwashed that I don’t know better anymore.
In the fundamentals of marksmanship there are a few things to set up, such as stance, natural point of aim, sling usage, grip, and BRASS. BRASS standing for Breathing, Relax, Aiming, Stack, and Squeeze. Once you’ve accounted for everything else and are settling in to take the shot the last steps I go through are these.
Breathing your body will go through a natural breath cycle, and after a complete inhale and following with a partial exhale, there is a three to four second window in which you can pause. This pause will keep the shot from being interfered with by the movement in your chest, which breathing will cause. This slight pause is short enough that it will not cause impairment through decreased oxygen to muscles and eyes. Waiting longer than a few seconds can be an issue, and if you wait too long, you need to take another breath and start the cycle over.
Relaxing, as simple as it sounds relaxing is an important part of accurate shooting. The opposite of relaxing is tense muscles, and tense muscles are not relying upon good bone support to build a shooting stance. Tense muscles also use more oxygen, which then turns into increased movement, as oxygen starved muscles will begin to shake. So relaxing is the answer.
Aiming is the process of both settling into a natural point of aim and properly aligning the sighting system on the firearm. Natural point of aim is what happens once our stance, grip, and body position come together. The place where the sights want to point towards. It is the inputs of “muscling” the firearm to the location of the target we are trying to avoid. If the firearm natural wants to point at the location I want to shoot, the odds of making the shot increase exponentially. When we have to use muscle to move the sight alignment onto the target muscle fatigue and oxygen use come into play, similar to what we discussed in the “relaxing” section.
The sight alignment portion means properly and consistency using the sight system on the firearm. Without aligning the sights correctly, it is difficult to hit what your target, and inconsistent sight use will result in inconsistent hits.
Slack was originally in reference to the two stage triggers on military rifles. Pulling the trigger through the first stage to the point where you feel a “wall” of increase pull, this being the point the second stage begins. Through the process of learning the individual trigger on your firearm you will know how much of the slack to take out before last bit fine tuning your sight alignment and breathing. This sets you up for the final step.
Squeeze the last step in the shot sequence. The slack has been taken up and you are applying the very last pressure to the trigger to give yourself a clean break. This will be done in as smooth manner as is possible. Harsh inputs are much more likely to move the firearm, disrupting the natural point of aim and could lead to a miss.
There is BRASS in a nut shell, I find it to be a useful method of settling myself up for success when shooting. I especially find it useful when teaching shooting or when my personal training focuses on the basics of marksmanship. By drilling this principle to the point that it becomes second nature, you should see an improvement in your shooting.
-Joe
Outpost 95 