Calling out Hits

[Del Monty]

This is not intended to start a flame war or point fingers at anybody .. its more an informative yet interesting article I found while browsing Facebook this morning.

 

(Fair amount of reading coming up!)

 

"Call your hits." A phrase commonly uttered at a majority of airsoft fields, most often by younger or newer players. But it is not rare to hear the phrase used by disciplined, experienced players, even if an event's rules request otherwise. Full disclosure, I have, at one point yelled out this often overused phrase. But it would be hard to find someone who plays the sport and has not done so, at one point or another. Recently, I took some time to think on how troublesome the statement can be, and the negative consequences it can cause.

It creates a negative experience for everyone.

There are many often overlooked factors that play into the situation when a player accuses another of cheating. Factors like range and equipment can often create an scenario where the bb hits the player, and because of fps drop over distance or the thickness of their vest, the target does not feel the hit occur. Whether or not the person was guilty of cheating, accusing them creates an awkward scenario for both parties involved. You, the shooter, view them as a cheater, even if it was an honest oversight on their part, or you just misjudged your range. They will most likely consider you as a hostile person, who they should avoid. This weakens one of the best aspects of the sport, socialization. Alienating one person can also have a domino effect with other people. By putting yourself in a negative mood you become less open to socialization with other players, unless they also want to complain about people not calling hits.

It makes it harder for the refs to supervise the games effectively

When a ref sees a person cheating, they usually take action against it. When a ref hears a player yelling "call your hits" they usually go and investigate. This means that a ref overseeing an important objective now has to go settle a dispute between players. If something happens at that objective while the ref is gone, it could have negative consequences on the flow of the entire game. While the ref is distracted it could also allow people who are actually cheating to get away with it, and feel confidant to repeat their behavior later. By calling attention to a minor and easily resolvable issue, you potentially make the entire game less enjoyable for a majority of the players involved.

By saying it, you rule out inaccuracy

By far the largest issue with the phrase I have observed, is that the accuser automatically assumes they are a perfect marksman. I have several times heard an accuser state that "If this where a real gun, they would be calling it." Urge to murder your fellow airsoft aside, this attitude further rules out the possibility that the shot could have been inaccurate. Or, that the gun's range is shorter than where the target is located. A common problem experienced in airsoft is also relevant to this issue. Any amount of foliage can alter or entirely stop a bb mid flight, making a shot perceived as straight and accurate drop short or veer off to the side. This means when an enemy is behind foliage, It can easily appear as if the shot hit them, when it was stopped or deflected by the cover they are behind. The foliage could have also caused a significant fps drop in the bb, causing it not to be felt by the target, especially if they are hit in the gear.

The easy solution

All three of these issues share one common solution, take more shots towards the target. If you lay down a couple of extra shots, it could be the difference between a successful "kill" or a day of frustration. Taking extra shots Increases the likelihood that that the target is aware they were hit, or that the foliage in your shot's way is removed from the next shot's.
Remember, always play safe, respect admins, and be fair. That is all.

[jcheeseright]

couldn't agree more.

 

Everyone always goes on about how airsoft is a game of honesty, yet so few people will trust in the honesty of their fellow players. 99% of the time, if you're shooting at someone and they haven't called hit, it's because you haven't hit them!

 

I've used this as an example before I'm sure, but Beard at Spartan Airsoft (near Bristol, good site) once did a test with an oil drum: He placed the drum on a long flat path with no obstructions and set up a firing point 30 yards away. Players were asked to stand at the firing point and using aimed shots to shoot at the oil drum, most players missed by a fair margin. There were some who were off by several yards and many who's BBs were overhopping so much that they were clipping branches above the drum. Even with a marshall stood next to the drum (which made a loud noise when hit) there were a hard-core of "I don't miss, call your hits!" types who insisted that they MUST be hitting the drum when they clearly were not.

 

With that in mind, next time you're shooting at half a hand sticking out from behind a tree stump 40 yards away with a shitload of foliage in between... there's a good chance you're nowhere near it.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Oil drum test thing

Love that idea! Everywhere should do that.

 

Sometimes I wonder if people realise BBs can actually be physically seen in flight. How can anyone be so oblivious that their gun isn't shooting straight?

 

Have you all seen the Father Ted sketch with the cows? "These are small... The ones out there... Are far away!" Well, I think that aspect of science is lost on a lot of people. There comes a point when BBs travel too far away for you to see them anymore, so people think that when they lose sight of their shot, it means it's hit something.

 

So, say the range they're too small to see is about 40m. There's a target at 50m, they watch the shot travel, they see the little drop off, they adjust and fire again... Still no hit call?

 

It's because their point of aim, their reference point, is the point at which the BB disappears. So they hold that disappearing point over their target thinking they're disappearing because they're hitting something, when actually there's still another 10m to go and in those 10m the BB falls short and doesn't even get there.

 

CALL YOUR HITS!

 

*Sigh*

 

Edit:

 

Just remembered there was once a time when I ran across a large open space that a hiregunner was watching, I heard him spray at me for the entire run and I didn't feel a single thing. He then went full on psycho-banshee mode screaming at me. Initially, I thought he might not know what "target lead" means.

 

But what actually happened, was that he didn't have a mag in. So obviously, I shot him and carried on ahaha, it was a beautiful moment.

[Del Monty]

To be honest, If I am unsure if I have been hit or not, I will always call the hit regardless .. there is no shame in being hit .. it doesn't make you elite or a good player not being hit and its part of the fun of airsoft .. plus chicks dig scars .. being hit is 80% of a skirmish day in my opinion .. you will be fair more respected and admired if you call your hits.

[Black Death]

Very good points all round fellas

 

Ultimately if someone isn't taking they're hits then pepper them till they do. That way they will learn for next time it's a lot less painful to call hit after 2 or three rather than 30, especially when there's a few of you shooting at once and one of them has a moscart lol

[Esoterick]

One thing I think should always be mentioned in the briefings is that just because someone can't hit you, doesn't mean you can't hit them. I suspect(although have no evidence) that a lot of cheating is caused by "well if he's not taking his hits than neither am I" type situations. When actually said player is dumping high caps up to 10 metres in front of where you are, or their aim is just plain off like in that oil drum test.

 

I went to a game on sunday where someone was really heavily suppressing a tree a few metres to the right of where we were set up.

[Monty]

I hear that phrase far too often. If they 'aren't calling their hits' then move closer to them and try again!

[Happy]

Hear it quite often and I'll admit that I do it sometimes. That said I play mostly CQB sites and I hate it when you are six feet from someone and they don't call it, despite it being obvious when they flinch with each hit.

[BrightCandle]

I heard it in todays game a few times. The first time a marshal went up to investigate and the guys were not getting hit. In this case the rounds were pinging off the cover and ricocheting into the cover. There were no direct hits. I think the shooter assumed that because it was 2 young adults in there that they must be cheating but from my angle I could see the rounds were going lower than they thought they were. He hit them in the end.

 

The second case was actually my team within itself rather than to the opponents where they were convinced they were hitting a guy behind a tree. I took a lot of shots at him myself but he had a significant height advantage and was a decent distance away and the shot I finally got him with I was aiming about 16 MOA above him before it finally pinged into him.

 

I have never said this phrase, I never will. I expect others to give me the benefit of the doubt that it didn't hit and I do the same to them. I saw a guy appear to flinch today but he got behind the cover he was running to, rounded it and got a shot on me. I had thought I hit him but I am never certain of that, even at 10metres.

 

One of the things I really noticed today is the limited range of the guns. A woodland site really shows how easy it is to get range issues and there is significant reduction in power and accuracy at the peak of the range. I tried over hopping and while it increased the reach it become hard to actually hit anything. In the end I took to crawling through the high grass (a highly effect bit of cover in airsoft, no your BBs don't penetrate more than a little bit of it) and reducing my range 10 or so metres.

 

Its an obnoxious thing to say, it assumes the other person is cheating and very rarely have I actually seen people cheat, and certainly I don't think I genuinely saw any in my game today, but some of the other players frustrations with loosing and struggling to hit their targets came out this way.

[Esoterick]

I can't say I haven't shouted at players on the odd occasion when I see shots bouncing off them. However it is always best to try and make a note of what they are wearing and have a chat with a Marshall. Unsurprisingly every time I have done this I have been met with "yeah we've had a few reports about that player, I will have a word with him"

 

I had a case of this on sunday where I initially thought that my shots were on target but perhaps it was just out of range. Then the player hits me from the same spot using a hire gun...

 

Normally I try to give players the benefit of the doubt, although I've had numerous occasions where I am blatantly hitting the player before they hit me. I find it pretty hard to not say something along the lines of "would you like to take your hits as well?" after I have called hit myself.

[cavninja]

Love the oil drum test! I agree, every site should have them! And if they don't take their hit?? Keep on hittin'!!

 

 

[cavninja]

Lawyer: Soldier I, why did you fire 13 rounds at Ms Farrell?

Soldier I: She didn't call her hits M'lud!!!

 

(what he actually said was because the Browning 9mm only holds 13 rounds! Inquest in to Operation Flavius).

[NickM]

I have only said call your hits when I know they have been hit but are not calling it, either because they flinch and rub an area then continue shooting or I actually watch the shots bounce off their kit. I haven't said it unless I'm absolutely positive they had been hit. I then switched for a period to "I will continue to shoot you until you call it" sometimes followed with, "I'll start aiming the shots at an area you find more sensitive."

 

The only other thing I have shouted along the same lines was to a player who held his gun round a doorway and sprayed the room I was in "You are not allowed to blind fire, it was covered in the briefing, you have hit me but you are not looking down the sights of your gun. I will not take the hit until you take an aimed shot!" Luckily a marshal was close by and he came to see what was up, I was told I was in the right and the marshal remained to see the conclusion of the stand off.

 

I've been on the receiving end of the "Call your hits" shout, until I explained to the kid he had fired with his muzzle pointed at the ground as he raised it in my direction, they laced the pavement between us.

[BrightCandle]

I saw a guy turn up to a skirmish with a new red dot scope, take off the iron sights, fit the scope and then go straight into the game. All I could think was that a non zeroed scope wasn't going to be very effective! Presumably he never zeroed his iron sights either. Its stuff like that which makes you think a lot of these guys don't actually set up their guns properly for any sort of accuracy, they fired at the guy who was in their sights and have taken no account of the difference of point of aim and BB trajectory let alone the zeroing of the gun.

 

I just don't see that many cheats. So far I have seen one guy escorted off for blind firing and another for screaming call your hits very aggressively towards another but actually genuinely catching cheats I haven't seen very much. But based on how some people seem to fit their gun and zero it without paper outside does suggest to me a lot of people have a core accuracy problem on their guns which only contributes to the issue.

[two_zero]

Main reason I do not wear a lot of gear and encourage other people also to go light.

I never forget the grown man (40-50s) who stood up in the bushes in a semi only game, emptied his mid cap on full auto while shouting "call your f*ing hits!!", face looking like a tomato. Is this the behaviour of a grown man??!! behaviour like this is in my opinion a lot worse than the person who occasionally doesn't realise they are hit. oh and just as a side note, I was not on the receiving end, I was on this persons team.

 

Then again, there is a crowd of player who think themselves up above other players and, whether deliberately or not, never taking any hits. These guys are a right pain.

[jeffery7466]

Shouting call your hits doesn't solve anything, nor does it make the game any more enjoyable.
Though I admit that I've shouted this in anger a few times.

 

I have only said call your hits when I know they have been hit but are not calling it, either because they flinch and rub an area then continue shooting or I actually watch the shots bounce off their kit.

 

Once I spent two minutes shooting this guy's butt. Must have seen ~20 rounds bounced off it. He never called his hits, but just flinch back into cover, and a few seconds later he would present his derriere to me again, like it was mocking me. I got a bit angry, so instead of shouting call your hits, I moved out of cover and ran towards him (and the opposite team) and shot his ass point blank, and made sure he was out for good. Of course I got lit up by his team.

[bornleverpuller]

Sometimes flinching isn't a good indicator though, last time I was playing someone sent the marshall over to check me because he had shot at me and I'd flinched, I'd flinched because it hit the barrell I was in cover behind and I hugged it a bit tighter.

 

Personally airsoft is as much about the fantasy of playing soldiers and the gear than it is about the game and I just accept that sometimes because of mine and others kit it won't be registered. If I think I'm hitting someone and they don't take it I keep shooting until they put their hand up, eventually they notice.

[BrightCandle]

I think the right thing to do is just to keep playing and keep shooting. I'll typically switch my aim for a squishy bit just in case and then check after the game if they really do have 30 welts on their left ear or not. Everytime I thought I was hitting I can't find the obvious mark on the guys neck/face/ear I thought I was making. Having done that a few times and just kept firing until I eventually do get the call I have realised I must just be missing. It seems unfavourably to me but its why when I zero my gun I do it firmly supported, prone, with a target at the exact same height and am going for a group within an inch at 10m and on a test grouping of 20 or so shots with an even spread around the centre. Anything less rigorous so far has given me too much variance in the field from point of aim. So my own personal experience of testing myself is that its my aim/shooting and not my targets calling their hits. So the guys that call this I personally think ought to be escorted off the site and asked to never come back, its obnoxious and they are probably wrong.