


Sway affects every shot, while recoil affects the aim of all shots after the first. Sway is very similar to gun kick but since it is not caused by firing the weapon it is not technically recoil. Some weapons, particularly sniper rifles, exhibit "sway". Good examples for this are the Desert Eagle, where the barrel will kick up and to right, pointing at the sky, and the AK-47, where it is noticed easily with the Red Dot Sight, since the shots will hit below the red dot while firing. As this is only visual, it will never affect actual recoil, but since it will often cause the sights to be misaligned or the barrel to point in another direction, many players try to counter it by adjusting their aim while firing, actually making them miss more shots. Visual Recoil - The firing animation of the weapon.When available, the Grip reduces view kick. This type of recoil can be countered by manually adjusting the aim through the mouse on PCs or the right stick on consoles. Most weapons can kick in multiple directions, while some others will always kick in the same. View Kick - While firing, the view will actually move from the original aim point.In Modern Warfare 3, when using the Thermal Sight, gun kick is removed completely (since there is no weapon model, only the scope overlay), making weapons with high gun kick like the L86 LSW or MK46 extremely accurate. The gun kick does affect accuracy as rounds fired will always strike where the reticle or front sight post is on the screen. If the player stops firing, the weapon will quickly reset back to the original aim point. This movement is bi-directional meaning, for example, if the gun moves to the right it will quickly move back to the left if the player keeps firing.

