In combat a lot of shots are fired without actually trying to hit someone. It’s not missing on purpose, if the target is available you shoot it. But in order to maneuver it’s safest to keep them in hiding until you’re ready to go for the kill. So a lot of shots are fired trying to get that advantage. Of course in peer to peer combat both sides are trying to get that advantage and a ton of infantry training revolves around how exactly to do that. In combat with one trained force and one untrained force it’s almost always an easy win for the trained force because the untrained people don’t understand how the trained force managed to magically appear in their weakest spot while still shooting at them from the front.

In order to do that you spend bullets. Lots of bullets.