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Grazing fire is a term used in Army Field Manual No. 23-65
"BROWNING MACHINE GUN CALIBER .50 HB, M2" In grazing fire, the cone of fire does not exceed —the average height of a soldier—above the ground. When each bullet is fired, it will leave the barrel of the weapon at the axis of bore set from the angle of sight desired to strike the target area. The trajectory of the round should be constant as well as maximum ordinate. Maximum ordinate is the highest point of the trajectory, which is usually two-thirds the distance to the target from the weapon. Depending on the caliber of the round being fired and the slope of the terrain, as well as the distance to the target, the bullet will maintain a semi-flat trajectory. With 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition, which is most commonly used with, for example, the M240 machine gun, the bullet will reach a distance of traveling at , before it begins a pronounced downward trajectory to the earth. Any distance beyond that range will be considered
Grazing fire is a term used in military science
Military science is the study of military processes, institutions, and behavior, along with the study of warfare, and the theory and application of organized coercive force. It is mainly focused on theory, method, and practice of producing mi ...
and defined by NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
and the United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...
as "Fire approximately parallel to the ground where the center of the cone of fire does not rise above one meter from the ground." Grazing fire is often performed by machine guns. It is tactically advantageous when attempting to cut off an infantry ground assault or counter-attack."BROWNING MACHINE GUN CALIBER .50 HB, M2" In grazing fire, the cone of fire does not exceed —the average height of a soldier—above the ground. When each bullet is fired, it will leave the barrel of the weapon at the axis of bore set from the angle of sight desired to strike the target area. The trajectory of the round should be constant as well as maximum ordinate. Maximum ordinate is the highest point of the trajectory, which is usually two-thirds the distance to the target from the weapon. Depending on the caliber of the round being fired and the slope of the terrain, as well as the distance to the target, the bullet will maintain a semi-flat trajectory. With 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition, which is most commonly used with, for example, the M240 machine gun, the bullet will reach a distance of traveling at , before it begins a pronounced downward trajectory to the earth. Any distance beyond that range will be considered
plunging fire
Plunging fire is a form of indirect fire, where gunfire is fired at a trajectory to make it fall on its target from above. It is normal at the high trajectories used to attain long range, and can be used deliberately to attack a target not susce ...
due to the arc (axis of bore plus angle of sight) needed to impact the target area.
Grazing fire is so named because it cuts the vegetation low as though a herd of cattle had been grazing there. The optimal height of fire should be at knee height. In addition to keeping the enemy pinned down, anybody wounded or going to cover will fall into the line of fire, not out of it.
References
Military science {{mil-stub