Running away from someone who's shooting at you.

Lets say that you start running away from someone (through knee-high snow, towards an airship that is maybe 300 metres away), and they start shooting at you (with this thing (but more slowly than that, trying to actually aim)) (you weren't expecting that). The first bullet misses. What do you do, if you want to survive?

Edit: By the way, you are unarmed.

edited 13th Dec '11 1:28:19 PM by fanty

Keep swerving, but I doubt you'll survive long.

Is the shooter a terrible shot in-universe?

Move as unpredictably as possible, and if possible, find fucking cover.

^^A mediocre shooter.

^I had this silly idea of the guy hiding in the snow, but that probably wouldn't work very long :D

edited 13th Dec '11 1:31:58 PM by fanty

Unless you're moving towards cover, odds are good he'll tag you with a shot if he keeps trying.

Yeah,that's a pretty long run over which to dodge bullets. Especially with the snow which would hamper yoru ability to change directions. Dodging would also greatly lower your momentum and slow you down, making the distance even longer. Just one hit to a leg would incapacitate you and you'd be down. I'd turn around and try to Bugs Bunny my way out of it.

Honestly if he's not very far away and has to draw first you'd be better off charging him. You can cover a lot of distance at a sprint before somebody can get a gun up. (Maybe twenty feet in snow?)

edited 13th Dec '11 2:50:24 PM by Night

Knee-deep snow is deep enough to slow you down considerably (as in, to the rough equivalent of a fast walk), and tire you out incredibly fast, but not deep enough to hide in.

Unless he's a rotten shot or has very limited ammo (like only a handful of rounds), realistically, he's very likely to tag you with at least one shot somewhere before you cover the distance

I'd stay close enough to blind the attacker with something before running. Rocks, snow, rocks in snow.

Pray to the God of Ballistics that the rest of the shots miss.

I'm really not sure about this. But with snow that deep, would crawling actually be more effective than running? You know, relieving the weight on each hand and feet. Also making yourself a smaller target.

Sorry it's probably a stupid idea.

edited 13th Dec '11 4:38:41 PM by PsychoFreaX

Keep moving. If he wants to keep the range, he has to follow, which throws off his aim. If he wants to stand still and aim, you increase the range, which lowers his accuracy. Also, lurch from side to side aperiodically (shouldn't be hard in snow) to present a randomly moving target. If he doesn't hit you in the leg or the head, you may make it.

^^ Nope. "Knee-deep" is kind of nebulous as a measurement, though. On me, snow that's really "knee-deep" is between 19 and 22 inches, depending on whether you're talking about barely reaching the bottom of my knee or just to the top of it. But lots of people who say "knee-deep" mean "anything over the middle of the calf", which is more like 12 to 14 inches.

If the snow is truly knee-deep to me, and the person is small, they might be able to burrow through it, but the shooter will still be able to track their progress, and they'll be moving a lot slower, giving him a much better chance to sight in on them.

And you still have to deal with whether it's light fluffy snow or heavy wet stuff.

Ah, here you go: This guy is trying to run through light, dry snow that's truly knee-deep (and somewhat deeper in places). Watch it through the eyes of your shooter — how easy is it going to be to get a bead on him in a minute or so? (that's how long it would take to run 300 yards in those conditions. It would be a little faster if the surface under the snow is smooth, and the snow has no drifts at all.)

edited 14th Dec '11 8:01:13 AM by Madrugada

Best bet is probably to attack the guy (assuming you start off closer to him than to the airship). You're not going to make it unless he's a true savant of incompetence in marksmanship.

I agree and you have some snow to throw at him too. Use it to your advantage... I think.

edited 13th Dec '11 4:57:07 PM by PsychoFreaX

http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/activeshooter.html

I think your character is le fucked. The Springfield is a nasty motherfucker, and we used it as a sniper rifle up until at least Korea...

Maybe if the people he was running to fired at the shooter to distract him... but otherwise, there's not much to be done, other than swerving like fuck and hoping for the best...

Depending on the attacker's size and our initial distance, I think I might choose fight over flight. I figure I'd probably get a fucking heart attack from the sheer fear, so I might as well see if I can disarm the bastard.

^ In CQC you only have the advantage of charging someone with a rifle (and this is clear ground mind you) at 27 feet or less. If you miss with a 1903 Springfield at 27 feet, you won't hit him regardless at 270. That rifle has pinpoint accuracy out to 1000 yards or more. Thus it's more prudent to just keep running in that scenario.

Basically the character's fucked unless you have a Dramatic Gun Jam or something else rendering the shooter incapable of firing. (Hence my post of saying pray to the God of Ballistics the rest of the shots miss.)

edited 14th Dec '11 4:36:42 AM by MajorTom

Okay, people, thanks for all the replies. The person shooting is actually the protagonist, and the responses here gave me some ideas on how to make shooting the guy less of an easy task than it seemed in my head.

Is your shooter's target well-versed in anything like gymnastics, acrobatics, Capo Eira, etc.? I'd at least attempt to use some of those skills if I found myself in that predicament, although the snow would make the moves difficult at best. Still, it'd be the most random and unpredictable movement that anyone could possibly manage, and would make anyone who tried it a very difficult target.

'Very' is an overstatement. And the notion of someone going into a gymnastics routine whilst in knee-deep snow with someone shooting at them is kind of hilarious.

Best hope your character remembered to pack their Kevlar vest.

I'd assume the shooter is female and use some form of bizarre reverse psychology to break her mind and make her shoot at my enemies instead of me.

What? Nobody suggested it before.

Run straight, dive into snow to catch a breather every once in a while. Really, I am probably fucked, but at least I am less guaranteed to be fucked than if I did a swerving pattern or tried to bumrush the attacker. Really though, unless you are amazingly fit, swerving is just going to tire you out and make you take 3 times the time to get to the location, giving the shooter more chances to bury some smokin' hot lead in your spine.

Keep your body low or at least bent forward a little if it doesn't affect your speed much to make yourself a slightly smaller target. Don't dive into the snow until you gain a bit of distance, and probably roll a little in either direction when you first hit while to take advantage of being out of view for a second if you're far enough away, depending on how deep the snow is.