The Tactical Advantage: A Definitive Study Of Personal Small-Arms Tactics

EIGHT TACTICAL USE OF COVER AND CONCEALMENT

One of the primary lessons a gunfighter must learn is the difference between cover and concealment. If you learn and use these tactics well, they will be invaluable during a fight-and may very well save your life. If you use them poorly or confuse one with the other, you may become a candidate for that most dubious of honors, the "Distinguished Wooden Cross."

In a nutshell, cover is anything solid that offers ballistic protection. That means that you can hide behind it and be reasonably certain that bullets fired at it will not penetrate and hit you. This requirement may be problematic depending on the type of armament your opponents have on hand. Concealment, on the other hand, is anything that hides your presence from the adversary. A good example of cover is a brick wall; a good example of concealment is darkness. Brick walls will stop most small-arms ordnance. Darkness will allow you to hide, but it will not stop anything. Sometimes cover will also offer concealment.

Cover may be used during a fight to prevent your getting shot. Concealment may only be used prior to the fight to deceive your adversary about your whereabouts. Concealment will provide a base from which to launch a surprise attack. Concealment demands stealth, which is sometimes enough. If your opponent doesn't know you are there, he won't think of shooting you. Cover often offers the same advantages as concealment with additional ballistic protection.

To use concealment you must have prior knowledge of an enemy's approach, as well as the belief that he hasn't seen you. Obviously, if he knows you are there, hiding in the shadows will not help you. To use cover you must have the time and room to reach it, as well as the specific anticipation of hostilities.

There have been discussions about the propriety of always running to cover when a fight begins. Generally the closer the fight is, the less time you will have available to respond to a threat. You will often be forced to react and solve the problem with your own gunfire. Remember the nature of most urban gunfights: short-duration, high-intensity fights. If you are being attacked, your response must be to counterattack immediately. Then, after you've reacquired control of your environment, you can move to cover. Sometimes, however, the gunfire may come from an unknown area or from such a long distance that it precludes an instant counterattack from you. At such times, you must move to cover first. A good rule of thumb is that if you do not have a target to shoot at when you come under fire, get behind cover.

Realize that many things most people consider to be cover are really only concealment. When I conduct tactical courses, I often place a hostile target directly behind a couch with only his gun and eyes showing. Many students take valuable extra time to place that precise brain shot on the exposed target area when they could simply fire through the couch (concealment not cover) and drill him in a third of the time… twice! Similarly, most of the things people tend to hide behind, thinking they are taking cover, can easily he penetrated by gunfire.

The same goes for corners, doors, and walls inside buildings. Most modern cartridges will penetrate directly through these light wood and stucco structures. Therefore, if an adversary fires at you from a doorway, you can shoot him right through the wall. Even buckshot will work in such situations.

Automobiles, on the other hand, make relatively good cover against most small-arms fire except for centerfire rifle fire. The exception here is the side glass, which is as resistant to gunfire as a piece of paper.

You want to seek as hard a point of cover as possible, but realize that such hard cover will tend to cause projectiles to ricochet. Bullets often ricochet along an axis parallel to the cover they've struck and angled slightly away from it. If you are too close to your cover, they'll ricochet right into you. The magic distance seems to be at least six feet. If you stay at least six feet from your cover, the angle of departure of the ricochet will have grown enough to bypass you completely. If you crowd your cover, you run the risk of getting hit with one of these ricochets.

Remember when I said that there are no absolutes to tactics and that tactics are an art and not a science? Remember when I promised in the introduction that you would see this again? There are times when you may wish to get closer to cover than the six-foot standoff distance. This is when your adversary is shooting at you from above, such as from a second-story window. If you move too far from your cover, he will be able to bypass your cover by virtue of his higher position and shoot down into your position. Yes, by moving closer you may run a greater risk of ricochets, but you run a greater risk of getting shot outright the other way. Additionally, if you are engaging multiple adversaries at different points, you must be cognizant of the possibility that they may pinpoint you and attempt to flank your position. So note your adversary's location and stay alert.

When you are looking around cover in a search or shooting around it, expose as little of yourself as possible. Use a roll-out technique so that the only things exposed to the potential danger or the known hostile are your gun muzzle and your eye. Avoid changing hands to shoot from the support side. Remember, the reason you are rolling out with your pistol is to shoot and stop the so-and-so who is shooting at you. I know very few men who even approach their dominant-side accuracy when shooting from the support side. The purpose of shooting is to hit. To roll out to the support side, turn your weapon 90 degrees to the support side so that it is held in a sideways position. Now you can roll out with much less exposure than if you were holding the weapon in a standard position.

^{Shooting around cover is preferable to shooting over cover. Here a student rolls out around cover only enough to be able to fire at the target. Notice his distance from the cover itself.}

^{Do not use the cover to "brace" your shooting platform unless the target/threat is a great distance away.The target in this photo is barely visible 85 meters away.}

^{Taking a position this close to the cover may allow ricochets to skip right into you.}

^{A better technique is to stay at least six feet away from the cover you select. Sometimes this may not be possible, but it is always preferable.}

^{The architecture did not allow this operator to increase his distance from his cover, but notice how he exposes only enough to be able to see and shoot. Notice also the rolled-over position of his pistol.This is much more preferable to the old method of switching hands.}

^{The instant you clear your cover, you must be able to shoot.}

^{Learn different shooting positions that will allow you to fully use your cover. Here a tactics student perfects his kneeling position.}

Cover and concealment are very useful tools to have and often will become crucial factors in the future of your breathing activities. Study them hard and keep your bases… well, covered!

^{The only available cover is low, so this shooter must lower his firing platform to conform to the available cover. (Photo courtesy of ChuckTaylor.)}

^{What is this shooter using, cover or concealment? If it does not stop bullets, it is not cover!}