The Gap - Russian Strategy

[fentum]

Having had the full suite of CoH boardgames languishing on my bookshelf for far too long, I am trying to get into the system via the PC game. Ran a couple of solo games of The Gap and had a couple of tactical queries...

When playing as Russians, it looks a good plan to set up the two non hidden rifles out of LOS and HIDE them turn one. Is that a generally good idea? I hid them behind the woods and houses, then moved them into those houses later. The AI couldn't see them, and never did fire speculatively at those hexes. Do real players often fire speculatively?