Moderators: carlson1, Charles L. Cotton
bronco78 wrote:Sir, the advice is free, so take it for what’s it’s worth.
And much of this depends on your sons attitude, and that of an unknown DI yet to be met.
True proficiency of a shooter was welcome when I was a Drill Sergeant, so long as it was accompanied with the right attitude..And while I was Army, and only visited a ½ dozen times marksmanship training at Parries Island.. vice teaching the program or going through it. I can say, your son will be forced to learn to shoot the marine way, later, as he advances though the marksmanship program (the best in any service at the recruit level IMHO) his individual shooting tendencies so long as they fit the ideals and training end state will be allowed to some degree.
Bottom line, intimately familiar with proper nomenclature, clearing, disassembly, functions assembly and functions check all straight from the Marine Corps manual would be great, general factors that make a good marksmen good, so longs as eyes and ears are wide open, and he understands, what he knew when he got on off the bus, is only good if he uses it to enhance what he is taught, from that moment on.. Some get that, some learn it along the way; some never do, and suffer for it. You have to learn in the Marine (army) way first, then be a better Marine (Soldier) by using your personal knowledge and experience to enhance your abilities.
Free advice, from on old Sergeant major, who wishes noting but the best for you and your son.
Why not send him the Aaron Robert's carbine class? It is still an easy drive from Friendswood/PearlandMedic624 wrote:Anyone know a range in the Friendswood/Pearland area that I can shoot the AR with my son? He's about to join the Marines and wants to get familiar with the platform. I've tried Bailys and they only allow one round in the gun at a time and they're not too friendly about it.
The reason for this belief of mine is fairly simple: When I was engaged in combat the day I was wounded, I made several critical mistakes resulting either from training scars or from simply not being trained how to manipulate and fight with my rifle in the proper manner. I’m well aware that the training, tactics and procedures (TTPs) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been greatly improved over the past 7 years since I was wounded, but I guarantee that they are still lacking and could continue to be improved upon. There are some things that can truly only be learned through actual combat, but in my opinion and experience there is a lot of enhanced weapons training widely available in the private sector that is simply going to waste and not being implemented in a unit's training and work-up, and should definitely be included as the "standard" in which all abide by. I believe that it will save lives and prevent a lot of men and women from being needlessly wounded or killed. However, once these skills are attained they absolutely have to be practiced on a routine basis, as gunfighting is most definitely a perishable skill.
. . .
Since my M16A2 was “dry” and I needed to reload, I moved about 10 feet to my right. I knew that I wasn't behind any cover and was just concealed, but I thought that if anyone else came out of the bunker’s doorway they wouldn't be able to see me. Besides, I was just going to quickly reload my rifle and get back into the fight, right? Wrong.
The Marine Corps had shown me in boot camp how to reload my M16 on the rifle range, but speed reloads and tactical reloads were simply never taught. There was one instance during a training exercise before we deployed where a British Royal Marine, who was part of a team doing a training evaluation on my unit, demonstrated how to reload our rifles quickly and put the empty magazine in our cargo pocket so that we wouldn't waste time trying to put it back into our super-tight standard-issue mag pouches. Not to mention that you never want to re-insert an empty magazine into the same pouch that you are going to instinctively index your fresh magazines from. But we never once went over that or practiced it afterwards, so I didn’t retain it and my body never memorized the motions of that technique. We actually never went over or practiced doing ANY kind of reloads; it was just something you were expected to know how to do: when your weapon runs dry, you stick another magazine in it. That sounds simple, but I've discovered that it's a lot more complicated than that... especially when doing it under stress.
So, what did I do when it was time for me to reload my M16 that fateful day? I pressed the magazine release, pulled the empty magazine out of the mag well and inserted the empty magazine back into one of my mag pouches. This took a couple extra seconds to do, especially considering I was inserting it into a pretty tight pouch that already had a magazine in it. The fresh magazine in the pouch was positioned bullets-up as well, because way too many rounds would fall out of it when I tried carrying bullets down in the pouch. I'm guessing that's because the feed lips on the magazine were worn, but I knew nothing about what constituted a bad magazine back then and especially didn't know that magazines were a disposable component. After indexing a fresh magazine, I shoved it into the mag well until it seated and then finally, after at least 8 seconds, pressed the bolt release and sent another round flying into the chamber.
I was also looking down at my weapon and gear the entire time I was reloading. Thus, when I was finally done reloading and looked back in the direction of the enemy bunker only 20 yards away from me, the very same enemy fighter who I'd just shot and assumed that I had permanently put down was now standing at my 11 o’clock, at the corner of the bunker, and aiming directly at me with his AK47 assault rifle.
While I had been performing my slow and nasty reload, the Iraqi had gotten back up to his feet and stepped out of the doorway of the bunker in order to search for the American asshole who just greased his comrade and shot him too. When he didn't immediately see me in my previous location, he moved down the wall of the bunker until he spotted me standing there performing my abortion of a reload, while staring down at my weapon and gear. I had basically allowed... no, invited the bas**** to get the drop on me.
