Calling All Shooters
OK, here is the situation: I have NEVER qualified on a weapon. I have never handled a firearm except for a pistol in Navy Boot Camp in 1983.
I am now expected to qualify on a AR-15 (I think) December 22. ONE WEEK AWAY.
There is a crazy loonie (ex-Ranger) that lives about 5 miles from us. He has a rifle range and (I hear) all kinds of weapons. I have been calling around tonight to see if anyone has his number (he is unlisted). I hunted down a friend who is an ex-Marine sniper. He started asking me all sorts of questions I had no clue about.
My husband is a hunter and can show me how to shoot a deer and that's about it. YIKES!! What else do I need to know??
I called my partner F2 and he said we may be qualifying on an electronic range. Huh?? He said I could check a weapon out from the armory to practice with. OK, so what do I check out? What do I do?
Yes I am d*mn well going to play the helpless female!!! Cause that's how I feel right about now. Help!
I am now expected to qualify on a AR-15 (I think) December 22. ONE WEEK AWAY.
There is a crazy loonie (ex-Ranger) that lives about 5 miles from us. He has a rifle range and (I hear) all kinds of weapons. I have been calling around tonight to see if anyone has his number (he is unlisted). I hunted down a friend who is an ex-Marine sniper. He started asking me all sorts of questions I had no clue about.
My husband is a hunter and can show me how to shoot a deer and that's about it. YIKES!! What else do I need to know??
I called my partner F2 and he said we may be qualifying on an electronic range. Huh?? He said I could check a weapon out from the armory to practice with. OK, so what do I check out? What do I do?
Yes I am d*mn well going to play the helpless female!!! Cause that's how I feel right about now. Help!
posted by SGT Lori at 20:20
5 Comments:
Just put yourself at the mercy of the court right now.
There is no way to really explain to someone how to shoot aside from the four fundamentals, Steady position, sight picture, breathing, trigger squeeze.
Find someone at the armory who can help you out. If that doesn't work just cry until they let you out of it.
yea, i would definitely do that, or try to find a rubber duck and practice the 4 fundamentals with that, steady position, breathing, sight picture and trigger squeeze. do a lot of dime washer drills, that will help steady position and trigger squeeze, which are two of the most difficult to master. the dime washer drill will help with muscle memory. it takes about 2,000-3,000 repetitions to get good muscle memory, so practice it a lot at night, like before bed, or in the morning before work, do maybe 50-100 reps? for how to conduct the dime washer drill, and a lot of other good information see if you can find someone with a copy of FM 3-22.9 that you can take home and study, also, if you can, while you practice this, see if you can get an IBA, as that is now the army standard to qualify in, and it adds an extra bit of difficulty. when you do the dime drills try to be in your qualifying uniform, k-pot, IBA, eye pro, LBV, knee pads(the ones that go in the ACUs work well, if you don't have them you can cut sections out of the foam sleeping pad, they're $8 at MCSS, and slide them in) train as you fight, etc, etc.
i found a coppy of 3-22.9 here
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-22-9/index.html
check out chapter 4, read it repeatedly, and follow it to a T and you should do ok, that has all the target stuff in the appendix too, so you can print it out for dominant eye drills and stuff.
then read chapter 5, because before you qualify you have to group, and zero, and gets a lot of people, thats where the dime/washer drills will really help.
and that electronic range is probably the EST, which is kinda cool and high tech, but essentially the same thing as a real range, but indoors.
thats about as much help as i can give on the internet, try and find some combat arms guys at your station(don't you have a ranger qualified SC or something..?) to show you proper firing positions and stuff. but if not really hit fm3-22.9 as much as you can, read it and use it and you will succeed, i discovered it as soon as i become an NCO and havent scored less than a 38/40 since.
good luck, and let me know how it turns out.
It may sound silly, but the BRM fundamentals work. I hadn't touched an M16 in years but recently picked one up, went through the breathing, sight picture, steady hold, and trigger squeeze routine and...put a round through a quarter at 50 meters. Probably just luck.
See if you can instead qualify on a paper target. Fire your rounds and when you walk out to collect your target take a pen out of your sleeve and put about 25 holes into the target.
Congrats, your're a Marksman.
John; LOL!!! I asked around and was told "too bad it is an electronic range...you can't cheat." Cheat? "Yeah, you are only supposed to have 20 rounds and two tries. As infantry we had 30 rounds and two tries."
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