"Marksmanship Matters:Let Soldiers Shoot" in the May 2011 American Rifleman

Anyone else see this article by Barrett Tillman? Begins on P. 54 of the current issue.

Interesting stuff in here:

• A Regular Army light infantryman should fire about 1,200 rounds a year
• His Guard and Reserve colleagues should expend 660 rouns
• for "plain vanilla" soldiers... ...the specified annual expenditure is 490 rounds for active and 294 for Guard and Reserve
• train a rifleman going to war with 58 rounds of ammunition - 18 to zero and 40 to qualify on the pop-up target range

Lots more that doesn't distill down to bullet points.

It's sad to realize that the qualification hasn't changed since 1998 when I was Active Duty.

I read the article last night. It seems to reinforce my belief that just because someone has former military experience, it does not mean they can shoot by default. I have seen far too many current and former military guys at our rifle matches that are painfully slow AND woefully inaccurate, even at the close distances (100 yards and in) we shoot in our stages. Yet, they are adamant that they don't need any training because they are/were trained in the military and it has taught them everything they need to know.

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Originally Posted by Jeff Franz

I read the article last night. It seems to reinforce my belief that just because someone has former military experience, it does not mean they can shoot by default. I have seen far too many current and former military guys at our rifle matches that are painfully slow AND woefully inaccurate, even at the close distances (100 yards and in) we shoot in our stages. Yet, they are adamant that they don't need any training because they are/were trained in the military and it has taught them everything they need to know.

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This...

Also when we trained with the Night vision and IR Unit a total of 30 rounds :rolleyes:and then on to the Aimpoint M68 RDS again 30 rounds :rolleyes:
40 BRM Like you said
18 to sight in
and only 60 rds On our Convoy Live fire(AKA Drive -by shooting:sarcastic: as we called it ) .The only time they let us Put the M4 on Burst. Soldiers need way more than that
also on the Tanks You loaded 3 rounds in the main Gun as a Loader, then you would swap to Gunner position and Fire only three rounds
and then you would swap up to the driver position and move the Tank into firing position and sit there while the others repeated the 3 load ,3 fire drill

Subscribed so I remember to read the article...

I'm feeling lucky, I've probably fired upwards of 4-5k rounds in the last 12 months of training.

I have been to several carbine courses where there were a couple of soldiers and/or Marines paying to augment their training on their own dime. It is a shame that they have to go that route but I was damn proud of them for their motivation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jeff Franz

I read the article last night. It seems to reinforce my belief that just because someone has former military experience, it does not mean they can shoot by default. I have seen far too many current and former military guys at our rifle matches that are painfully slow AND woefully inaccurate, even at the close distances (100 yards and in) we shoot in our stages. Yet, they are adamant that they don't need any training because they are/were trained in the military and it has taught them everything they need to know.

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Well said. I've observed terrible safety practices and poor shooting ability of most military "experts." I've seen guard soldiers come in to learn to shoot because they had to re-qualify the next day. Apparently they had never learned to use the weapon in the first place. I respect the service. However, the "expertise" is questionable as is the tendency to self promote. Most have little more than functional knowledge of only the systems they learned to use, of which they cannot transfer to other platforms. Fundamentals are usually terrible among all but about ten percent.

I was 'That Guy" that taught my PLT about the M4 .I had already owned and shot ARs in the past and the AK .Some did not know anything and the Army is real short on the instruction side .which is sad
Some of the Drill SGT would ask me how I knew so much :confused: "I have been shooting the AR Platform for years" I told them .And there it was I was Put in to help the Noobs .Hell I trained More of the Guys in our bays than the instructors did on the range.:(

It seems like your experience is similar to others I have heard. The military while boasting of its "marksmanship" does little to train people. Rather, your experience is becoming the norm. Good instructors are often those who come in from the civilian world with above average experience and greater intuition.