Using Cover

From the Sniper Skillset: cover stops rounds (a solid wall, an engine block, a thick barrier); concealment only hides you. In a fight you want cover, and using it well is a core defensive carbine skill that serves two masters at once — exactly like a precision hide: cover is both a shooting support (steadier hits, per Field Craft) and protection. The shooter who can fight from cover effectively has an enormous advantage; the one who stands in the open or uses cover poorly gives it away.

The most important and counterintuitive cover principle: don't crowd your cover. Backing off a step or two from a barricade (rather than pressing right against it) gives you a wider field of view and fire with less of your body exposed, lets you see more of the area around the cover, keeps your muzzle from protruding past the edge (which gives away your position and can be grabbed/deflected up close), and protects you from spall and ricochet skipping along the cover's surface. Pressing tight against cover feels safe but actually narrows your view and pushes you and your muzzle out into the open to see around. Work from a step back and you see and expose less.

The discipline of cover is exposing only what you must, only when you must. Use the structure as a brace for a stable position (load into it as in Field Craft — soft or braced contact for the rifle, never the bare rifle on a hard edge), present to engage, and minimize the time and amount of your body in the open. Shoot around cover (past the side) in preference to over it where possible, since going over exposes more of you and silhouettes your head. When you must look or shoot, do it deliberately and get back behind protection; don't linger exposed. Vary where and when you appear rather than popping up from the same spot repeatedly (the predictability lesson from the hides material — an opponent learns where you'll be).

A specific cover skill: shooting from your support side to use cover on that side without leaning your body out into the open. If cover is on your left and you're a right-handed shooter, staying on your strong shoulder forces you to lean your head and body out to the left past the cover to see and shoot. Switching the carbine to your left (support) shoulder lets you stay behind the cover and expose far less of yourself — only what's needed to see and engage around the left edge. It feels awkward at first and your hits will be looser support-side, so it's trained deliberately, but it's a high-value skill: it can be the difference between engaging from behind cover and having to expose your whole upper body. Train both shoulders so cover on either side can be used without giving up your protection.