How does steel-pushing an outgoing bullet not effect your aim

[SingleSoul]

So a thing that has been bothering me. We see several times that Wax pushes on the bullets he fires to give extra speed and penetration.

As I understand it you can only push away in straight lines from your center of self. In AoL it’s described that the blue lines extend from Wax’s chest. But that would be a very different line from the aiming line of a gun (assuming a normal gun design and firing stance). If you shoot straight ahead the barrel would probably be about level with your nose. But the steel push would come from your chest pushing the bullet upwards. Why is this not an issue for Wax?

[Frustration]

You can affect where the lines come from if you're skilled enough, like we see with Marsh pushing and pulling from his hands.

[SingleSoul]

Yes, of course. Don't know how I forgot that scene 

But what got me going on this was Wayne saying that Wax crouches to get lift on his pushes. But I guess this just means that Wax has less practice with that kind of push.

[Returned]

Alternatively, Wax has a ton of practice with both shooting and his Allomancy. It's plausible that he could judge when a Push on a bullet would be helpful or when it would ruin the shot, and what timing is practical (like just before hitting the target or an obstacle in the way). But I do think that Frustration's answer is likely to be a factor as well, even the dominant factor. Wax is an amazingly skilled Coinshot.

[kenod]

20 hours ago, SingleSoul said:

Yes, of course. Don't know how I forgot that scene 

But what got me going on this was Wayne saying that Wax crouches to get lift on his pushes. But I guess this just means that Wax has less practice with that kind of push.

This might also be because pushes still go both ways, and trying to push on something heavy from a different point of the body would put pressure on that body-part. Doing so with a bullet might not be that big a deal, but heavier lifting you'd want to do from your center of mass, to deal with opposing force better.

[HSuperLee]

While I suspect that Wax (and most modern coinshots) practice enough to change their push point just enough to aid their marksmanship, another possibility might involve the fact that, as for at least part of the series, we're mostly dealing with wild west style firearms, Wax might be shooting from the hip, quick-draw style. That would put the lines of his shots much more aligned with his center of mass.

[cometaryorbit]

On 1/19/2023 at 9:22 AM, Frustration said:

You can affect where the lines come from if you're skilled enough, like we see with Marsh pushing and pulling from his hands.

Yeah, by default lines are center of mass to center of mass, but that can be changed- like Kelsier pushing on specific parts of a metal bar to spin it.

[Flaming Coinshot]

I think you can slightly push the bullet to put it on course and then blast it

[alder24]

He could push the bullet while it's still in the barrel, or while it's some distance away from Wax, so it doesn't veer off course. I didn't really think about it while reading.