Are you not supposed to 'breath out' before the shot?

[Adam Beckett]

... excuse me, for being new here. I remember (many, many decades ago), my gun instructor, during basic training, told me to breath out(!)* before taking a single long range shot.



I still remember that to this day. Though, I had not much practice since. I do not hunt in real life.

Not to cause a stir here - this is probably a highly contested topic among hunters(?) - but, is it not irritating to hear the 'breath in' audio cue, when trying to take a single shot?

Or, do you just learn to ignore it, after a while? Or - would be interesting to hear - are you breathing in, or half way out, when you shoot in real life, on your hunts? Is it a personal preference?

*) ['Breathing out' should let your body muscles 'relax' and help you aim smoother, while breathing in - and then holding your breath - would make you feel 'tense'. It does with me, when I am working out, lifting weights and forgetting to keep breathing.]

[6Taylor4]

In-game, the hold-your-breath button will give you the best stabilized image in the scope; you will notice a small zoom is added during the held breath. Perhaps one does get used to it, as I don't currently remember hearing it!
I vaguely remember my Boy Scout shooting range supervisor saying, your choice; hold it, or let it out halfway, then squeeze, or something like it.
In-game it makes for a cleaner, more accurate kill-shot.

[Bjørn]

I've watched a lot of biathlon (or 'ski-shooting' (ski-skyting) as we call it), as it's a very popular sports here. Now during winter it's constantly on tv...

This post made be realize something I've never paid attention to before; that they breathe out before they hold their breath and shoot.

I image (and noticed personally) that if you take a deep breath and hold it, your pulse is much more noticeable, and causes your viewpoint to 'jump' a bit for each beat, more so than if you've relaxed / released your breath when holding it. Especially when you're winded. I'd imagine this is also relevant when aiming.

---

Biathlon can't really be compared to hunting though, where you quietly and calmly sneak around, without being out of breath (normally), although the pulse is probably high.

In biathlon they race on cross-country skis for miles before shooting 5 small targets, then repeat that 3 more times. 2 standing shooting series and 2 lying down. They're always out of breath with a high pulse when shooting, still they manage to hold it while they 'empty their lungs'. That's pretty impressive, come to think of it.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by 6Taylor4:

In-game, the hold-your-breath button will give you the best stabilized image in the scope; you will notice a small zoom is added during the held breath. Perhaps one does get used to it, as I don't currently remember hearing it!
I vaguely remember my Boy Scout shooting range supervisor saying, your choice; hold it, or let it out halfway, then squeeze, or something like it.
In-game it makes for a cleaner, more accurate kill-shot.

We're a loooong way from those musket days 6 lol

[6Taylor4]

Haven't fire a real weapon in almost 60 years; you mean they've improved on muskets?

[Adam Beckett]

If one can hold a (fairly heavy) musket straight and shoot, you really SHOULD 'hold your breath'?!

... since you never know, if any given shot would not blow off half your face?

[6Taylor4]

Originally posted by Adam Beckett:

If one can hold a (fairly heavy) musket straight and shoot, you really SHOULD 'hold your breath'?!

... since you never know, if any given shot would not blow off half your face?


:bwaa:

May I refer you to the skills of Natty Bumppo?
I would imagine the feeling you got from breathing after firing a musket was one sweet inhale.

[Andaramir]

Breathing out relaxes muscles, breathing in is doing the opposite. That is how I learned (at least when doing for sport and not hunting). I dont know why video games doing it the other way around, maybe I missing something.

[kubanskiloewe]

i have a book from the "dark side of the force" :-) about breathing for sport shooters.
Its from russia in the 70´s and over 200 pages ....
In general its a bit different from heavy exhaustet Biatlethics who have to slow down their pulse in a few seconds still needing a lot of air to breath and a already calm down sport shooter ;-)

So, for this situation, like waiting hours on a stand, you should breath normal as aver when aiming, but pull the trigger when you have breath out. No need to hold the breath because this will bring your breath out of rythm and your pulse too. Sport Shooters have many shots to do and its better not to have these up and downs. But i know many hunters hold their breath on any occassion, even when farting, hahaha

happy christmas

[Forcedge]

For the purpose of the game, holding shift (holding breath) gives you steady aim for a couple of seconds to make a better shot. Probably doesn't carry over into real life though

[kubanskiloewe]

yeah its ok so far except the increased zooming which is total unrealistic but i suppose they tried to simulate a way of high concentration (focusing) on the target.

[ogdad]

yep, its common knowledge irl you shoot on the exhale, pretty much the opposite of hunting and shooting games

[hwk643]

Posted by Roland Bartetzko former German Army, Croatian Defense Council, Kosovo Liberation ArmyAuthor has 4.6K answers and 478.2M answer views5y


Why do snipers hold their breath? Do they have breathing techniques?
All soldiers hold their breath before they pull the trigger. You first take a breath, then exhale a bit, before you hold your breath and shoot.

The only difference is that a sniper holds his breath much longer than a shooter with a normal rifle, up to ten seconds. This is done for several reasons:

When you are breathing, your chest is moving and with the the chest movement, you also move your weapon. This is bad for accuracy.
To properly take aim, you need time. By extending the (natural) short break between in- and exhaling, the sniper gains enough time to properly aim at even a very difficult (far away and moving) target. This doesn’t work when you are breathing.
When you exhale, your heart rate goes down and you relax which makes it easier to shoot.
This “default” breathing pause comes quite naturally. While I write this answer, my lungs are neither completely full nor empty. It requires little effort and you can concentrate on more important things.

[6Taylor4]

Originally posted by hwk643:

Posted by Roland Bartetzko former German Army, Croatian Defense Council, Kosovo Liberation ArmyAuthor has 4.6K answers and 478.2M answer views5y


Why do snipers hold their breath? Do they have breathing techniques?
All soldiers hold their breath before they pull the trigger. You first take a breath, then exhale a bit, before you hold your breath and shoot.

The only difference is that a sniper holds his breath much longer than a shooter with a normal rifle, up to ten seconds. This is done for several reasons:

When you are breathing, your chest is moving and with the the chest movement, you also move your weapon. This is bad for accuracy.
To properly take aim, you need time. By extending the (natural) short break between in- and exhaling, the sniper gains enough time to properly aim at even a very difficult (far away and moving) target. This doesn’t work when you are breathing.
When you exhale, your heart rate goes down and you relax which makes it easier to shoot.
This “default” breathing pause comes quite naturally. While I write this answer, my lungs are neither completely full nor empty. It requires little effort and you can concentrate on more important things.

Superb quote! Thank you!