FY2022 1st Quarter ★ http://www.usar.army.mil/ARM 1

by Sgt. 1st Class John M. Buol Jr.

Myth – “Breath Control is a critical component of

marksmanship fundamentals.”

Fact – Shot placement is determined by where the

barrel points, as indicated by the aligned sights, when

the bullet clears the crown.

Breath control or breathing has only one function in

effective small arms training: If you’re on a range and

effect on shooting and will magically cause shots to go

high or low. Any movement, whether caused by breath-

ing or any other factor, will show as motion in the sights.

While the hold may wobble, the shot will be where the

aligned sights indicate when the trigger breaks (assuming

a good zero and ignoring trajectory, of course.)

Origins of the Myth

The obsolete and redacted Four Fundamentals model

was really a short checklist describing a simplified Shot

Process. The previous version of Trainfire (as taught be-

conditions found in FM 23-71 and FM 23-8 down to two

tables of fire all shot from prone or supported. The in-

tention was not to learn good shooting; it was to create

the minimum amount of skill to get new recruits being

instructed by non-experts to hit more than 55% of the

full-size targets somewhere during a simplified quali-

fication course meeting the absolute bare necessities of

military field marksmanship from the easiest, most stable

Breath Control and Shooting

In This Issue

Breath Control and Shooting

Call Your Shots!

Solving Dunning-Kruger Effect

2 http://www.usar.army.mil/ARM ★ FY2022 1st Quarter

The Four Fundamentals model was intended to be

simple enough that low-skill shooter/coaches with no

formal shooting experience (i.e., drill sergeants) could

teach it to new recruits. The order of the checklist (Steady

Position, Aiming, Breath Control, Trigger Squeeze) is im-

the Four Fundamentals” (“uh... breathing and the other

Four Fundamentals was intended as the elementary

school equivalent of marksmanship, rather like arith-

metic taught to first grade children. It was a start point

that was supposed to be built upon but most Soldiers and

units never have. Consider that about 90% of recruits will

pass Initial Entry Training and none of that failing 10%

are removed due to weapon qualification. Then consider

this exact same novice-level qualification course and

standard that recruits routinely pass remains the only

standard enforced during a Soldier’s entire career. Drill

sergeants, combat veterans, combat arms personnel, and

ing that is never built upon and consider that breathing is

25% of the entire Four Fundamentals model, given equal

weight as position, aiming, and trigger control. Add in

experts pretending to be instructors harp on it.

and breathe normally at any other time. These are part of

the Functional Element called Control.

long, over-staring the sights, holding their breath until

blue in the face, and probably inducing recoil anticipa-

tion (flinch) just to be rid of the chambered round. Breath

control alone does not and can not cause shots to go high

or low. Even if it somehow could, the shooter can see that

as aiming error with the sights.

Breath control “problems” are usually Aiming error

movement up and down. Any shots triggered during this

or lower than the intended point of aim. That the shooter

closed on the Shot will likely fail to see aiming error when

the shot breaks and remain incapable of consistent shot

calls. A target-gazing shooter (especially if using iron

sights) also may not notice this sight alignment and/or

sight picture error going high or low. Both of these more-

likely causes indicate problems having nothing to do with

breathing. If the struggling shooter was made aware of their

tendency to flinch, paid better attention to sight alignment/

picture, and learned to call shots, this breathing “problem”

would take care of itself.

emphasizes a non-issue like breath control and are oblivi-

ous to something like flinching which is usually the real

cause.

poor trigger control, and/or lack of good sight alignment.

Then, some random yahoo with a range safety paddle

pretending to be an instructor breezes by the targets and

quips “watch your breathing” at the poor group without

Above: Being able copy and use a single, easy-to-un-

derstand picture makes it easy to “teach” PMI. This is

a key reason why breath control (25% of the entire Four

Fundamentals model) received undeserved emphasis

by low-skill shooters pretending to be instructors.

FY2022 1st Quarter ★ http://www.usar.army.mil/ARM 3

This is worse than useless; it is actively detrimental.

Not only have we ignored the likely cause, we’ve dis-

tracted attention toward a non-issue.

Also note the old silhouette-shaped 25-meter zero tar-

get officially in use from 1980 to 2016. It is much taller

than wide and the same color as the front sight used to

aim at it. Windage error is easy to detect on this target as

the front sight appears close to the same width as the tar-

get, however, elevation error is more difficult to discern,

making high/low aiming errors more likely.

each shot. Even if in the highly unlikely event the shooter

failed to pause respiration, the fact they didn’t see that

error in the sights and failed to call it means they didn’t

The real solution is to become aware of sight move-

ment and calling the shot based on where the aligned

sights were when the trigger broke. Too many military

personnel incorrectly blame all high or low shots on

these things because they don’t know that they should,

breathing” is all they got.

breathing to reduce the amount of movement of the weap-

on. During training, the Soldier will learn a method of

breathing control that best suits their shooting style and

during the shot process. Soldiers cannot completely

eliminate all motion during the shot process, but they

can significantly reduce its effects through practice and

not caused by breathing but by failure to maintain proper

aiming and trigger control. Refer to appendix E for proper

target analysis techniques.

Above: The old silhouette-shaped zero target used with

Trainfire from 1980 to 2016 (and that continues to be

wrongly used even though the official wear out date

was FY2016) is much taller than wide. Aiming error

causing dispersion up and down is much more likely

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Appendix E

Bullets strung vertically do not necessarily mean a

breathing issue, nor do bullets strung horizontally abso-

lutely indicate a trigger squeeze problem. Coaches must

learn to identify shooter errors during firing and use the

bullet’s impacts on target to confirm their observations.

There are often several firing errors that can be the cause

of certain misplacement of impacts. The coach has to

realize that bullets only go where the barrel is pointed,

so he has to determine what happened that caused the

barrel to be pointed in those directions, and those causes

can be many.

open dialog with each other in a relaxed atmosphere.

Remember if a Soldier learns to shoot poorly they will

only be capable of shooting poorly. ARM

All articles, and ideas helpful to improving small arms

training, qualification, and competition for Army Re-

serve Soldiers are welcome. Submit anything you’d

like included in Army Reserve Marksman Contact:

http://ArmyReserveMarksman.info/public-affairs

to the unit or to Soldiers.

Learn more at

https://www.usar.army.mil/ARM

FY2022 1st Quarter ★ http://www.usar.army.mil/ARM 5

by Sgt. 1st Class John M. Buol Jr.

Most Soldiers remain oblivious to a concept that is the

most important step in developing their Shot Process: Shot

Calling

The Army’s previous training doctrine distilled basic

shooting procedures into a simplified checklist for begin-

ning shooters called the Four Fundamentals. The idea was

to eliminate details and only use the fewest components

deemed absolutely necessary. The Four Fundamentals

checklist was Steady Position, Aiming, Breath Control,

and Trigger Squeeze.

merely passing routine qualification. It also gave equal

be as important as factors that really are important.

The Shot Process

Regardless of the weapon system, the goal of shooting

remains constant: well-aimed shots. To achieve this end

state there are two truths. Shooters must properly point

the weapon on target and fire the weapon without disturb-

ing alignment. The Shot Process is the basic outline of the

engagement sequence needed to land a hit. Learning how

to pay attention to detail requires learning which details

are worth paying attention to. The Shot Process formulates

example, is simply moving through the Shot Process sev-

eral times in succession. Rapid fire speeds this up. Multiple

targets in quick succession adds the need to transition,

The Shot Process has three distinct phases: Pre-shot,

Shot, and Post-shot. Pre-shot items include position, natu-

ral point of aim, initial sight alignment/picture, and hold

stability. Shot items include refinement of the aim and

trigger control causing discharge. Post-shot includes fol-

lowthrough, recoil management, and evaluation.

a time. As a shooter becomes more skillful, they need to

mentally organize the shot process tasks and actions identi-

fied as important. For a novice and new recruit, a simplified

approach such as the old Four Fundamentals is an adequate

start; get in position, take aim, and pull the trigger.

additional elements and points of emphasis are added to

their Shot Process as needed to obtain improved results.

on the context as well.

developing marksman to write out a personal Shot Process

that expands to several pages of description. Such detail

creates a disciplined mental checklist which becomes a

subconsciously-controlled task through practice. The focus

for a skilled shooter becomes a simple anchor allowing

them to focus their attention on their external environment

while executing their Shot Process as a subconsciously-

programmed response. These leads a skilled shooter’s Shot

Process to becoming get in position, take aim, and pull

the trigger; the difference now compared to the novice is

they learned the important details and distilled them to a

repeatable subconsciously-controlled action.

learning from it. Failure to do so makes it impossible to

refine the Shot Process and improve.

on any throw. Shooting blind removes essential feedback,

making learning nearly impossible.

6 http://www.usar.army.mil/ARM ★ FY2022 1st Quarter

alize it. Consider the effect blinking your eyes closed every

out a specific blade and visually trace its motion, it will

appear to temporarily “freeze” and you can see it clearly.

However, the blades did not stop moving; the “paused”

appearance is due to your tracking their motion and pay-

ing attention.

The movement that occurs during Shot (actual dis-

charge) happens within perhaps a tenth of a second. Call-

ing your shot demands keeping your aiming eye open to

make clear witness of that motion and its relationship to

recoil as you watch this “sight movie” is the spot you must

call from. Not “center mass” or any other place you wish

to hit, but that actual spot. Blinking your eyes or failing to

accurately trace that motion means that critical informa-

tion is lost; you failed to take a sight picture, much less

record a movie.

can a shooter be certain they really saw it? By predicting

where the bullet went before looking at the target. Fire a

shot, predict the location, and then look at the target. The

process of Slow Fire in National Match Course competition

is a formal and ideal way to do this. Shooters use an optic

and can spot each shot after it’s fired, recording the result

in a score or data book. Shoot, call, plot, scope. Learn from

well-aimed shot could land. Note, this radius surrounding

that spot can be no smaller than the mechanical precision

of the firearm used. A rifle that fires groups measuring two

MOA (Minute Of Angle) from machine rest cannot have a

call radius smaller than one MOA as even perfectly-fired

and called shots could deviate that much.

may have a Call Radius the same as the weapon’s precision

capability but most Soldiers won’t be this good. Shooter

Below: Look at the blades of a spinning fan. If you casually observe, the fan blades appear as a blur due to mov-

Above: Trying to learn how to bowl or shoot blind is

difficult.

FY2022 1st Quarter ★ http://www.usar.army.mil/ARM 7

error and inconsistency will likely have the greatest influ-

ence on Call Radius.

Consider the threshold standard of shooting a five-

round group inside six MOA. An M16A2 shooting M855

ammunition will likely group 2-3 MOA (1-1.5 MOA radius)

As a start point, a Soldier should strive for a Call Radius

away from the called spot. Slow fire from a braced position

on a good target, such as the current-issue A8 bullseye zero

target, should not have significant point of aim deviations.

During slow fire, zeroing, and similar shooting, shots that

will immediately fix), or conditions when shooting at dis-

tance (wind pushing the bullet, etc.)

target records the call for a single shot. The actual shot

location is marked with a number of the fired shot in the

big target. The fact most Soldiers have never done this as

an exercise is one big reason why most Soldiers are poor

shooters.

ment. Only shooters that put in some effort to learn how

will improve their shooting. ARM

Above: Example of a simple plot sheet to formally track

shot calls based on the current zero target.

Below: Plot sheet tracking five shots. Shots 1-5 were first called and plotted on the top row in order before looking at the

target, and then a number written down in the big target with the shot’s actual location after observing the target. Given

the white diamond is 4 MOA, these shots were called within a Call Radius of about 1 MOA. A 3 MOA Call Radius is a

good initial goal. Have all shooters on the range use an optic to check the target for each shot to make this efficient. At