Idiot Savants

From Comments

The upcoming generation of morons who embrace the high-tech battery-powered whiz-kid horseshit by itself are going to pay a heavy toll when it shits the bed in combat, either from primary or logistical failure, and they're left with aught but high-priced clubs.

In riflery, just as in auto racing, the true professionals learn the old ways, because the lessons have been paid for in actual blood.

The Horse Had It Coming, Right?

Seems the topic of marksmanship, particularly long-range, has come up again over at WRSA . You should go read it, for reference.

A hip pocket lecture on the topic commences:

Actual shooting time in the best .Mil sniping courses of instruction is such a small component because while important, it’s probably less than 10% of the requisite skills, and consists of what is, at that point, merely the icing on that cake.

 And at that, upper-tier physical fitness is assumed.

That’s because if you couldn’t find, identify, and approach the target in such a way as to be able to hit it and then get away, you’d never get to the point of putting any lead on the target to begin with. At least not twice.

The only reason they pick the best basic shooters to attend is because they already know the fundamentals, and probably have the right mindset of listening to marksmanship instruction, along with being above-average intelligent and self-motivated (there won’t be a helpful instructor along to kick you in the ass once it’s for real) so it’s mainly a weed-out. The fact is you can turn most any shooter into a mil-spec sniper, it’ll just take longer, and the .Mil doesn’t like to spend extra time on slow learners.

Once you get someone to that level of performance, the caliber is interchangeable. (And I daresay, largely pointless.)

Evidence in support:

Simo Häyhä: stock iron sighted Sako in 7.62×53
Vassili Zaitsev: Mosin-nagant in 7.62x54R with PU 3.5x optical sight
Carlos Hathcock .30-06 Win 70 variant with Unertl 8x fixed power glass. Also an M2 .50BMG on single shot, with a scope mounted.
Chuck Mawhinney: Rem M700 7.62×51 w/ Redfield 3-9x scope
Adelbert Waldron: M21 7.62×51 w/ART 3-9X scope
gazillions of .mil since then: 7.62×51 from Rem M700s and M-21s in .308/7.62×51, with multiple glass combinations, then .300 WinMag, and even .50BMG
LE by the ton: primarily .308 under glass, because the Fed Match 168grBTHP and 175gr offerings are bog-stupid repeatable out of the box, with all the relevant numbers in all respects available to anyone, anywhere.

And on and on. Multiple combinations; same results: DRT.

All of the above, and many more, shoot better than most shooters can or will ever take advantage of.
6.5 helps a little, with one aspect.

You will not become One Shot Paddy with it, or any other cartridge, without significant amounts of regular training.
I repeat, significant amounts of regular training.
Everything else is secondary.

TL;DR:
Take what you have, and learn to hit with it in any weather and wind, any time of day or night, at any practical range. On the first cold shot.
That means keep a log book, and learn your rifle/sight/round combination backwards and forwards.

{Hint: You would do far better shooting 1 round a day for 1000 days in a row at various random ranges than shooting 250 rounds four days in a row from a few standard ranges.}

 Duh.

But that’s hard, and most people want easy.
Suture self.

Carpenters build things that don’t fall apart by building lots of things.
What hammer (or nail gun) and nail combination they use is a matter of relative indifference.

And the odds that we’ll get a new sniper caliber, and machineguns to match, and get everyone in NATO to go along, are long and slim.
We shoot 7.62×51 (and 5.56×45) weapons because the calibers are standard.
Good luck getting one army, let alone 29, to flip to a new cartridge that is standard nowhere in any of them.

You will likely see phased plasma rifles in the 40W range adopted first.
And then some jackass will pop off with the opinion that the 45W is a better man-stopper than the 40, and we’re off to the dead-horse-beating lab, again.

And if you can’t hit man-sized targets with well-used iron-sighted AR platforms in 5.56 out to 500Y routinely, like thousands of kids, some with only GEDs, do every week at two MCRDs, with a modicum of common sense and the tender instruction of Marine PMIs, you’re already a NO GO at the riflery station.

That’s basic numbnuts marksmanship, BTW.
Long range starts at >500Y. Period.

Best unfuck yourself.

One Down, Only 39,999,999 To Go

h/t 90 Miles From Tyranny

Another fine (Mexican, to a 99.999% certainty) export product, doing what they do.

Note with delight the literal grace under fire, and the following permanent deportation, this week, of three-time prior deportee Javier Hernandez Morales, in this case by Napa Valley County Sheriff's Deputy Riley Jarecki, after the protagonist tried to shoot her with a .22, and in short order, became the object of a 15-round mag dump to the torso, which successfully subdued his miscreance, permanently.

His final  "Aaaayyyyyy!" is clearly audible and intensely satisfying, howbeit all too brief, as the deputy successfully drains all the fight out of him when he tries to start his car and flee the scene of his murder attempt.

One Golden State Marksmanship Award, First Class, to Deputy Jarecki, and a heartfelt "Good Riddance!" to the murderous refuse with fatally poor situational awareness she has successfully deported forever. He represents 10,000 more crimes he'll never commit, 80 more elections he'll never vote in, and half a dozen anchor baby welfare brats he'll never sire, and all solved for less than $7 of duty ammunition, and a plastic garbage bag funeral in Potter's Field. If the family (in Mexico) wants the body shipped home, trebuchet at the closest Port Of Entry should be the officially selected method. (There may be a lesson or three in there somewhere.)

Would that they might show this video in Mexico, endlessly, as a reason to stop coming here, to 80M of Javier's primos.

"National Emergency" indeed, and here, the consequences, a mere 500 miles from the actual border.

It's a pity "Shoot On Sight" and "Dead Or Alive" posters have gone all out of vogue.

Reminder: Javier didn't just wake up that day and decide to carry an illegally-obtained weapon, illegally concealed, and attempt to murder a cop doing a traffic stop on a whim: he's been a criminal for years, if not his entire adult life.
They're all criminal illegal aliens. Some, more so than others.

Nice shootin', Deputy.

Fifteen Seconds

h/t Gun Free Zone

"Don't mess with people!
Good people have guns, and they will shoot you graveyard dead!"

Miguel, who posts a lot of good stuff every day (hint), posted a great video from YouTube, which we're stealing shamelessly.

Set Up: Fatal shooting. Polk County, FL.

Back story: rage-head ex-BF thinks his ex-GF is in an Uber driver's car (she's not, it's a totally unrelated and very drunk third party female). Jealous a-hole decides he's going to find GF in Uber car, and vows to "f**k up the Uber driver".

Which he attempts, first tailgating, then driving aggressively alongside, then cutting the guy off and forcing him to stop.

Rage Monster jumps out, with a dark object in his right hand, raises it at the Uber driver, yelling, "I've got a pistol, you want me to shoot you?!"

And catches one round in the 10-ring, stops, drops, and dies, on the spot. DRT.
(Cheers, balloons, and streamers. Civilian Marksmanship Award - First Class, and complimentary coupon for discount ammo.)

Uber driver has a valid FL CCW, the gun to make the paper worth the trouble, and oh BTW, just passed the police academy, and is waiting to be hired.

Scratch one oxygen-thieving waste-of-skin @$$hole from planet Earth. He's a good Democrat voter now.

Watch the whole video; the shooting vid starts at 9:00, and is replayed at the 10:00 mark.
Entire incident takes 15 seconds, and reax time for the Uber driver from guy getting out, to jumping up in his face making the last threats he'd ever issue in his meat suit, about 5 seconds.

Not very long to make life-and-death decisions, which is the whole point.

Nice shooting, Tex.

And the presentation, like the presenter, is four stars.
Dear Polk County FL: in Sheriff Grady Judd, who looks and sounds like anyone would want their sheriff to, all y'all have yourselves one damned fine example of law enforcement in your county, if this press briefing is indicative of the man. If there were a hundred thousand more like that, America would look a lot more like Mayberry than Mayhem, 24/7/365.

You get the feeling if he could issue commendations for citizens whacking perps, he'd hand one to the Uber driver in this case. And fast-track hiring the guy for his own organization.

Take the 12 minutes, and watch the whole thing.
It's a great story, with a familiar plot, and a very happy ending.

Great find, Miguel!

Basic Training - Shotgun

T7
Hours 8,9,10,11,12

As I told you at the outset, we'll go with the Remington 870. The .mil has used it, and half a dozen other guns, going back to about the turn of the last century. (Cue up The Wind and The Lion for some worthwhile scenes with one.)
They currently use the Mossberg M590. Mossberg does one thing right that Remington gets wrong: they put the safety on the backstrap, where it belongs, and where you can operate it rapidly with your strong hand thumb, instead of behind the trigger guard (which is functional, but more awkward).
In every other way, IMHO, the Remington 870 was/is a better gun (at least, it was before now-bankrupt RemCorp starting larding it up with all kinds of plastic parts to cut costs and quality). I have a M590. (In addition to most of a rack full of 870s.) It has a barrel heat shield, and a handy bayonet lug, always a thing near and dear to any Marine's heart. Mine sported a non-standard 12-inch M7 bayonet during the Rodney King riots.
But you can buy and add the heat shield and bayonet lug to any standard pump, with a couple of parts, and a minimum of work.
At any rate, the 870 is probably the vanilla-ice-cream commonest shotgun in America at this point. But if you're working with a Mossberg, a Winchester Defender, a new or vintage Ithaca, or any number of other pump shotguns, you'll get the job done. So at the end of the day, I don't care what you've got, as long as you know how to run it accurately and safely.

Focus on learning that, whatever you're rocking.

Hour 8 - Nomenclature, Firing Cycle, Disassembly/Assembly/Function Checks/Maintenance
Shotgun basics x 2:

Shotgun functioning:

Disassembly/Maintenance:

(Note, to find Reassembly, video 4 of 4, click on the link inside the video at the end of section 3. The http addy for it is a dead link for some reason.)

Loading/Unloading:
Two ways to go about it

(And a thanks to BillN in comments who spotted what I didn't, which was the spaz-ex on the other video when guy got flustercated, and lost his mind. My apologies for not catching the last 30 seconds of stupidity.)

Note for users: one thing I highly recommend you do with your 870, or other pump if the part(s) are available, is to replace the factory-standard small dark shell follower (the part that pushes shells back into the action during loading) with an aftermarket hi-viz heavy-duty plastic or anodized aluminum follower. I use a bright international orange one, so that I can see the action is empty at a glance. If I can see orange, I know there's nothing in that tube. It's also bigger and beefier than the OEM factory part, and therefore more reliable and less prone to jamming or tangling the shell follower spring.
It's a $5-10 mod, and you can do it in about a minute at home without tools, during normal disassembly for cleaning.
Do it.

Hour 9 - Immediate Action, Ammunition selection

Shotgun ammunition basics:

Hour 10 - Basics of Marksmanship and Moving Targets

The first video is prime: when firing a shotgun, lean forward more aggressively, and ride the recoil as you shoot to work the pump, so that when your muzzle comes back down, you're already set to fire the next round. I'm an average-sized guy, and I kick ass with a shotgun since learning that some decades hence. Your weight should be forward onto your leading leg. Then the recoil of full-power 12ga buckshot is inconsequential, and even the heavier magnums are tolerable.

When you're shooting at a moving target, coming or going doesn't really matter much.
Side to side does. The rule with clay pigeons is to pull the muzzle through the target, from rear to front, and pull the trigger as you get to the front edge, while still swinging the barrel. It works with clay pigeons, it works with birds on the wing, it works on feral pigs, and it works with bad people running across your field of view.

The beauty is, you can practice all you want at the local trap, skeet, or sporting clays range, to get the swing speed right. If you try to fire a shotgun like you aim a rifle, at a moving target, you'll miss behind them (and if they're not inanimate objects, they'll probably pick up speed getting away). Ask me how I know.

So spend some quality time practicing on trap or skeet (put a longer sporting barrel on the 870 if you do), get a new hobby, and build combat skills without looking like it.

Hour 11 - Course Of Fire

The entire USMC shotgun training for security personnel who use one, comprises a grand total of 2 hours of classroom time, and two hours of firing practice. The detailed breakdown is here. You should note that the orders section on shotgun training for additional security personnel in the first reference doesn't even require actual live fire training.

If live fire is conducted, following the breakdown in the second link, you fire 18 rounds of standard load 9-pellet 00B at 3 targets, (the CoF staggers it so you've fired 6 rounds at each target of the three by the time you've moved forward from the 25Y line to the 10Y line) engaged in the specified order in the second reference, from 25Y, 20Y, 15Y, and 10Y. 30 pellets (out of 54 possible: 9 pellets@ X 6 shells per target) impacted into each target is a pass, and qualification is a simple pass/fail.

That's it.
You can do the same thing most anyplace you can shoot, or you can replicate the exact full course to specification.
Your call.

A shotgun for defensive use should only be loaded with buckshot (00, 000, or #4) or slugs.
(Birdshot is lethal at muzzle range, and a mere annoyance after a very few yards distance. Don't try it. It only works in cheesedick Jason Bourne flicks, not real life.)
As a Rule Of Thumb, shot spreads approximately 1" in height and width for each 1 yard of distance from the muzzle. (Hardcore geeks, IDGAF if it's a bit more or less, I don't care about chokes and barrel lengths, nor about patterning the shot spread. That rule is literally,"close enough for government work". Pay attention to the general rule.)

Remember this guy? So, now you know he was about 6Y away from the muzzle,
assuming a cylinder bore weapon. Which was right in the sweet spot for
the person shooting at him.

So that means the ideal range for engagement is between about 6Y and 20Y for an average human target (given that the average person's torso is 18-20" across when facing you full-on). It'll still be quite effective closer up, but beyond 25Y, pattern spread, and a limited number of pellets, means that you'll start dropping pellets off the target (which flying lead you're still responsible for when it's continuing downrange past your target), and by 50 yards, the likelihood of an incapacitating hit with one round of buckshot on a man-sized target becomes prohibitively futile. Not impossible, just generally not worth the trouble.

Slugs, especially with a rifled barrel, turn a shotgun into a large-caliber hunting rifle with a 100-200Y range. If you have the slugs, if you have the barrel, if you have the sights, and if you've taken the time to train with all that in order to be able to use it to maximum effect.

If not, you get a roughly 100Y effective weapon shooting a rather devastating slug, with the accuracy of a Revolutionary War musket, at ranges a pistol is more difficult to be good with, without a lot of practice. And a weapon that's essentially worthless at normal rifle engagement ranges, particularly at 200Y and more, when you can't hit your target, but anyone even with a rusty old AK can hit you.
In short, great weapon indoors, in trench warfare, or in heavy brush or jungle, but not so good on prairie or desert plains unless the other team has nothing but clubs.

It is not a magic wand. Its forte is hammering relatively close targets with a devastating amount of damage, if they're not wearing a protective vest. (Most vests, including the 1980s-era PASGT military vest, were/are rated to stop fragments the size and velocity of shotgun pellets, among other things. Hips and heads if necessary, kids.)

A standard (2 3/4") buckshot round fires 9 .33 caliber pellets. At, say 10 yards, that turns your face or chest into hamburger. You tend to stop.

At 75 yards at a running person, you might get a hit or three, or you might miss them entirely, with all the pellets you fire.


Hour 12 - Sights, Lights, Lasers and low-Light Shooting

Shotguns need to be aimed.
And, just like pistols and rifles, there is no end of things you can add to them to help you see, ID, and hit your target. Some work better than others. The key is to know about them, try them out, and make sure before you make something a must-add, that what it gets you is worth the time, trouble, and expense.

A light is not a bad idea, to ID your target. The down side is that it also IDs you as a target to them.

Sights that only you can see in the dark, even without NOD, are even better.

Wearing NOD means you don't need the light, or the glowy sights.

You decide, and try it out for real, on a range, before you commit to something, and understand the pros and cons.

---

That concludes the marksmanship module, and Week One of basic training.
You're halfway finished.

Next, we start on fieldcraft.

Afterword:
Expect some administrative tidying up over the weekend, and perhaps a teaser, but I don't expect to start posting the next section this side of Monday for the meat and potatoes.
If I can do so, I'll do it like this week: all posts for the nominal day posted in the same day, rather than stringing it out over a month or more.
We'll see how that best-laid plan works out in reality, but that's where I'm headed with this.
-A.

Basic Training - Rifle V

T7
Hours 3,4,5,6,7

References:
FM 23-9 Rifle Marksmanship M-16A1/2/3/4/M4 (April 2003)
MCRP 3-01A USMC Rifle Marksmanship (October 2012)
Warrior Skills Level 1


Hour 3: 200Y, 300Y, 500Y record with ACOG/equivalent

Do the standard Table 1 firing course again, this time with the ACOG or other combat-sturdy optic you'll be using.
Do this one for score.
This is the one you'll own, until the next time you try.

Use a sling, and record the data in your record book.
All that info, including the iron sight data, can and should be used the next time you test yourself.


Hour 4: Pop-up targets

This is the point where the Army's Course of Fire should have kicked in: targets that pop up randomly anywhere from 50-300Y, and only stay up briefly, requiring you to spot them, estimate the range, and deliver an aimed shot.

If your targets don't pop-up, because you don't have that range, use a timer, and ensure that all your shots are within the maximum allowed time (look it up online), or set your own limit from beep to bang (that's how a decent timer works: it beeps randomly to indicate the start, from one to several seconds after setting it to go off so you can't anticipate the start signal, and records the shot, and displays the elapsed time from A to B. If you fire a series, it'll give you ascending splits for each shot).

With an ACOG, EOTech, etc., after the USMC CoF, this is child's play, but it takes a somewhat different skill set than just the square range marksmanship you began with.


Hour 5: Combat firing record

Now you're going to put the Table 1 USMC CoF, and the old Army qual skills together, and do the current USMC Rifle Qual Table 2 , and see how you stack up on the other 100 points that bridge the total score from Old Corps to New Corps, by giving you problems a bit more dynamic and real-world.


Hour 6: Night sights, night vision and lasers

Just like with the pistol, there are night sights, night vision and thermal sights, and lasers.
Anything that's not Gen II or later (III or IV) is best regarded as junk.
Gen I is active, meaning it requires an IR illuminator to function.
Which is like searching for bad guys in the dark by turning on a floodlight.
enough said.
Buy once, cry once, and get quality gear the first time.
Serious and quality night vision will set you back from $1.5-4K, or more.

Thermal sights start out toward the upper end of that.

What's it look like? Let's let some hog hunters demonstrate:

Unlike IR night sights, you can't see other optics nor projected visible or invisible laser dots with thermal.
You just see heat.
The plus is, you can see anything hotter than the surrounding area, even through fog, smoke, and light vegetation cover.
There are plusses and minuses to either option, but on the whole, you'll probably get better utility from IR than thermal.

And remember, if you think you're going to be out snoopin' and poopin' and operatin' at night, without IR or thermal sights (ideally, some of each in even a small unit) then after dark, against someone who's got them, YOU'RE the pig.

Think about that long and hard.

Lacking serious night optics, you can put tritium inserts on the iron sights of an AR, or if you have an ACOG or other optic, use illuminated reticles so that at least you aren't spraying and praying in the night when things go bump.


Hour 7: Night vision familiarization fire

 

Get to a range that does night shooting, esp. night shooting with NOD. I'd do it as part of training; if you can do that. If not, take a class.

Until you can run your weapon after dark, you're only a rifleman until sunset, and that ain't enough to get it done.

 

Run your weapon at night.

If you've got a PVS-14 or PVS-7, and an IR laser, you're not just a trained shooter, you are Death incarnate. This will give you an idea:

 

 

Guys who've trained with this, or used it for real overseas, note the same thing, time after time:

"It's not even fair."

 

Nor is it supposed to be.

In real life, a fair fight means you screwed up; you should aim for clubbing Harp seals.

And BTW, anyone coming after you from TPTB will be using it if they can. Bet your ass on that.

 

---

 

This concludes the rifle portion of marksmanship training.

This would be what you'd need to know and do, IMHO, to consider yourself basically qualified to operate a weapon in sporty times.

 

I've just condensed nearly three weeks of training for Marines at MCRD into 5 days' time.

And improved on it somewhat.

You're welcome.

 

This afternoon, we'll cover everything you need to know about the shotgun, for basic utilization.

 

 

Basic Training - Pistol IV

T6
Hour 8,9,10,11,12

References:
MCRP 8-10.3 Pistol Marksmanship M9 (January 2016)
Warrior Skills Level 1

Hour 8: ROE
Conflict always has rules. You'll find that out sooner or later. Winners set the rules, so you may be in for a surprise when things are over. But the rules are there, whether you know and follow them, or not.
These are the basics:

Ignore them at your peril.

There are always survivors, and the past generally catches up to you, no matter what happens.

Also, be aware that even though you follow the rules, others may not.

Fair enough. Inevitably, what goes around, come around. If you or your side has the reputation of being the ones who act like dicks, expect to get treated as you deserve.

Learn what the local self-defense rules are now, research the military ROE, and be aware that those ROE could change at any time, without you being notified by any bad guys you ever run across. Do the research and think this stuff over now, so you're not trying to do a mental reset on the day, under fire.

Hour 9: Shoot/No Shoot CoF

Find a range with a shoot/no-shoot course.

Alternatively, while your back is turned, have someone else put no-shoot targets between and around your previous course of fire.

Fire the course, avoiding the no-shoot targets.

The variation in such training is limited only by your imagination.

Hour 10: Range Qual 

Shot the standard qual CoF one more time. Score it. Accept that this is the level of proficiency you've achieved at this point, after four afternoons of diligent practice.
Now you've got a baseline for the future.

Hour 11: Night shooting

 

 

Hour 12: NVG CoF

Run through a pistol course of fire a few times, using lights/lasers/night vision.
Do it enough to get comfortable with the different options.

You want to know how to do this easily, not become a JSOC ninja.
(You can do that practice later on, on your own.)



-----



Once you done some familiarization firing with the pistol at night, you're done.

There is a ton more training you can (and should) do, as you have the time/money/inclination, but at this point, you're basically trained to the level of simple competence with a handgun.

How far you take it after this point is up to you, but at minimum, maintain this level of proficiency with regular dry-fire and live-fire practice.

Shooting well is a very perishable skill.

And remember, there are only three times when you should be using a pistol:
1) Your rifle is empty/jammed/broken.
2) You're in an environment where toting a rifle would be difficult/prohibited, so a pistol is all you can have.
3) You're fighting your way back to your rifle.

The pistol is always a secondary weapon. That doesn't mean you shouldn't know how to use it.

Basic Training - Rifle IV

T6
Hours 3,4,5,6,7

References:
FM 23-9 Rifle Marksmanship M-16A1/2/3/4/M4 (April 2003)
MCRP 3-01A USMC Rifle Marksmanship (October 2012)
Warrior Skills Level 1

Hour 3: Firing practice

Reshoot the entire 200Y course of fire.
15 rounds slow fire, 5@ offhand, kneeling, and sitting in 15 minutes at the "A" bullseye target.
Then 10 rounds rapid fire standing-to-sitting in one minute, 5 rounds/mag change/5 rounds, at the "D" rapid fire target.

Reshoot the 300Y course of fire.

5 round slow fire from the sitting in 5 minutes at the "A" target.
Then 10 rounds rapid fire standing-to-prone in one minute, 5 rounds/mag change/5rounds, at the "D" rapid fire target. 
Reshoot the 500Y course of fire.10 rounds slow-fire from the prone position in 10 minutes at the B Modified target.


Use a range sling in all positions.
Use a record book for all strings of fire, call your shots, plot the hits, either with a spotting scope, or a buddy (even better if you each take turns shooting the course) giving you the accrual impacts, and practice wind estimation, and putting on your previous dope for each range.

Hour 4: Optical sights

There are endless varieties of optical sights out there. Almost anything from ACOG, EOTech, or Aimpoint will work. Now that you have the basics of shooting at various known-distance (KD) ranges pretty well down, pick out one of the above, and learn how it works.
Most of the above are 1X magnification. Some of them also have stadia lines descending from the verticle zero point, for additional ranges.
Note that as they come, windage has to be applied in the scope by aiming off, based on your best guesstimate of the wind and using the stadia lines left and right of the centerline, as needed.

You can also add a magnification device, typically one that flips into/out of your line of sight when desired.

How big an improvement is the use of a QUALITY optical sight going to be?
The Marines fire at a 12" bullseye at 300Y with iron sights, to simulate headshots.
When one unit deployed to Iraq early in the sandbox conflict, they were rocking their new ACOG sights. A formal investigation was initiated on allegations they'd executed prisoners. It turned out they in the JAG investigation were simply using their ACOGs to make headshots at 300Y and beyond, and succeeding wildly.

If you're wondering, their boot camp standard issue is the ACOG TA31RCO, which'll run you about $1.2K, standardized between the Army and Marines as the M150. It's battery-free, using either ambient light or tritium (a low-output radioactive element) applied to the reticle to make it visible under anything from bright sunlight to total darkness, and it magnifies targets to 4X larger than normal at all ranges.

You fire it with both eyes open, and let your brain take the image of the reticle from eye in the scope, and superimpose it on the image from the eye outside the scope. This allows you to keep your head out of the optic, and react to anything near or far much more rapidly. Since it makes targets out at 500Y look like they do at 125Y to the naked eye, it makes putting the sight on smaller pieces of the target more precisely quite a bit easier.

Here's the ACOG's reticle:

This is the reticle applied to the B-modified target at close range:

(If that were actually at 500Y, you'd put the horizontal stadia line between the 4 and the 6 at center-of-mass. Simple.)
Here's a quick video explaining the basics:

Things break, so you can do this with the iron sights (which is why you learn that first). And once you put the ACOG or something similar on your chosen weapon, you can make headshots all day long out to 300m, and shots beyond that are similarly point-and-shoot.

Find one you like, and put it on your chosen weapon.

Hour 5: Moving targets/Leads

Moving targets are the curveballs of the shooting world.
Anyone can be Pedro Serrano on fastballs, shooting at stationary targets. But people move.
Learn to hit movers, or even Jobu won't be able to help you.
Here's how to do it.

If you're not on a sniper team, you've just got to do the work yourself.

Hour 6: Shooting On The Move/Shooting From Cover and Concealment

For those who don't know the difference, "Cover" is something you're behind that will stop incoming rounds from hitting you; "Concealment", as the name would imply for English-speakers, merely conceals you from the vision of anyone who might want to shoot back at you. Both can be useful, but cover is always a better idea than concealment if rounds are flying both ways.

What good is this?
Skip to about 6:40 in this vid:

What happened is that the LAPD SWAT at the left (rear end) of the black and white, got down flat, and was able to deliver rounds under the vehicles, skipping several into the bank robber's feet and thighs, and then they moved up on him to handcuff him. (Being that the fire department's ambulances were rather busy with the 20 police and civilians he'd already shot earlier, Mr. Douchebag bled out right there in the street, saving court costs and 40-50 years of prison room and board. Boo frickin' hoo.)

The lesson is simple: If you can see a way to shoot around/through cover, you can win, and make the opponent lose.

Learn it, practice it.

Hour 7:

Practice on targets from 200Y-25Y, as you move from far to near, using cover/concealment to engage them, changing magazines as necessary.

No points for this.
Set up any course you like.

Scoring is pass/fail, for every target.
Just like real life.

Basic Training - Pistol III

T5
Hour 8,9,10,11,12

References:
MCRP 8-10.3 Pistol Marksmanship M9 (January 2016)
Warrior Skills Level 1

Hour 8: Instinctive Shooting

Hour 9: Range CoF

Shoot the qual course again. This time, with instinctive/point shoot techniques.
Try it both ways, and see what works better, faster, and accurately.

Distance is always a factor; someone far away usually gives you time to get a good sight picture.
Someone attacking from two feet away needs to be shot, as quickly as you can get the muzzle on target and the round downrange.

Hour 10: Weapons Retention

There are literally dozens of techniques and moves for weapons retention.
This is just one of them.

The takeaway is to be aware that if you have a gun on you, the day may come when someone decides they're going to take it away from you. You need to know at least some basic moves to prevent or thwart that, and develop the mindset to anticipate and prevent, or react to, any such attempt.

Or one day, you're going to be looking into your own gun.

Hour 11: Sights, Lights, and Lasers

As Tam noted on her blog recently, there's an easy way to ID your potential target in low-light.



Genius.

If you don't have that option because you're not indoors, you might want to carry a light, or even mount one on the weapon.

If you do that, there are ways to do it, and ways not to do it.

If using active illumination is not conducive to a long life, the Plan B for that is learning to use your pistol with NOD.

If you pair the pistol with an optical laser or compact red dot sight, you can increase your range for solid hits, even if your eyes are getting past their freshness date.

If you pair it with an IR laser, or sights compatible with night vision, and wear NOD, you're a frickin' ninja assassin compared to anyone stuck using the Mk I Mod 0 Eyeball after sunset, or inside a dark place.

Some accessories are high-priced hype, and some are the real deal. Look into what might work for you; anything that lets you put rounds on target faster, more accurately, or both is worth a look.

Night vision isn't a fad. If your gun safe is fat on weapons, and lean on night vision devices, sell off some safe queens, and get something that lets you see in the dark.

Even if you can't swing that, you need to be able to see your sights at night. Either do it right, and get some tritium insert sights, and have them mounted properly on your pistol, or, at bare minimum, get some glow-in-the-dark paint, and put a drop of it onto the front and rear sights of your weapon, so you can charge them up with a flashlight, and see them for the next hour or so.

Hour 12: Low light level Range CoF

Do the course of fire at night, or indoors in extreme low light.
If you don't learn it, you can't do it, and that tool won't be there when you need it.

If you're lucky, all you get out an incident in a dark place is a hilarious story.
I wouldn't bet on being that lucky.
Bad things happen in the dark. Plan ahead.
And then practice for dealing with them, while all it costs you is some time after sunset, or indoors.

Basic Training - Rifle III

T5
Hours 3,4,5,6,7

References:
FM 23-9 Rifle Marksmanship M-16A1/2/3/4/M4 (April 2003)
MCRP 3-01A USMC Rifle Marksmanship (October 2012)
Warrior Skills Level 1

Hour 3: Range Estimation and Holds

With or without optics in use, your rifle should be battlesight zeroed at this point.
Whenever you add or subtract windage or elevation, you should return the rifle's sights to the BZO as soon as you're done with that dope, so that the next time and every time you pick it up, it's already BZO'ed.

 Hour 4: 200Y practice

Repeat yesterday's 200Y slow-fire practice.
You should already be dialed in.
Concentrate on proper shooting technique with every round.

Hour 5: 300Y practice

Do 5 round strings of slow-fire, 1 round per minute, from the sitting position.
After the first string, make any change to windage dope that's needed.

Want a nifty cheat sheet for how much of a correction to add?



This embiggens. Print it out full size. Laminate it. Keep it with your weapon.

Hour 6: Rapid-fire practice

At 200Y, you start out standing up, and on cue (when the targets rise up on a military qual course) you go from standing to sitting, take up a good position, fire 5 aimed rounds, change magazines, and fire 5 more, with a 1 minute time limit. It's actually quite a lot of time, and the key is to get settled in correctly, before you start shooting.

300Y looks the same, except you start standing up, and go prone.

Here's what it looks like live, from 300Y:

For the Marines, the rapid fire is 40% of your table 1 score, 20 rounds out of 50. After firing is concluded, using colored paddles and placement, the people in the pits pulling targets score yours, also putting spotter discs into the targets so you can see the shot group location, and flashing the results back to shooters on the line. If you got your dope right at each line during slow-fire, and didn't rush your shots, or shoot at the wrong target, rapid fire is no big deal, and you bag 10 more hits each time.

If not, and you skipped a step, rushed your shots, or lost your mind and shot on the target to either side of yours, you'l see a lot of scoring waves of "Maggie's drawers", i.e. the scoring disc waved across the target to indicate a complete miss. If your neighbor's target has 15 holes and yours has 5, everyone at both ends knows what happened, and it's hilarious for everyone, except you.

The point of this is to teach you to get down, get a stable position, and be able to deliver sustained accurate fire if/when a target (or a group of them) comes into view at a distance. You may be shooting first, or you may be on the X of someone else's ambush. Either way, rapid, well-aimed fire is the only way to prevail. Misses are just noise.

This is also a taste of the pressure that'll be added on the more dynamic tables of fire later on. It teaches you to mentally slow down, and perform under pressure.
"Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."
You can never miss fast enough to make up for not hitting the target, whether it's for score on a range, or in unpleasant situations, when the range is hot in both directions.

Hour 7: 500Y practice

For those who never qualified in the Marines, or those who only fired 300Y or less, this seems scary.

It's not.

It's ten rounds slow-fire in 10 minutes, from a prone position.
It's the most stable position you can shoot from, at the biggest target.
Do the same thing you did at 200Y and 300Y, just 10 rounds in ten minutes, each one slowly and deliberately aimed. (Don't forget to dial the rear sight of your AR/M16 up to the "5" mark on the rear elevation drum. That's what it's for.)

When you see what you can do with even a shorter-barreled M4gery, dropping round after round on the target, you'll gain confidence in yourself, your weapon, and appreciate what you can do if you have to when it comes to reaching out and touching someone.

Find a range where you can make shots this far. It's the only way to learn the windage at this range (and at 500Y, with the 5.56/.223, wind can be a yuuuuuge factor).
So if you haven't done it, and haven't doped it, you'll only be using your weapon, and you'll only be able to use your weapon, to half its potential in daylight.

The AR platform with standard mil-equivalent ammunition, and you knowing what you're doing, is well capable of being an effective 500Y/460m weapon. Learn how to put it to work at that range in case you ever need to. On the day is too late to learn.

Basic Training - Pistol II

T4
Hour 8,9,10,11,12

References:
MCRP 8-10.3 Pistol Marksmanship M9 (January 2016)
Warrior Skills Level 1

Hour 8: Dry-fire Practice

Get a set of snap caps, and/or the dummy barrel, and use them religiously.
It'll get you additional practice in disassembling and assembling your weapon.
You can (and should) be doing 100 "shots" (or more) in dry fire for every actual round you ever send downrange. You can do fifteen or twenty minutes a day, covering anything you can imagine, for exactly $0.

Hour 9: Range CoF

Here is the current USMC Pistol Qual Course of Fire(CoF):
USMC M9 Pistol CoF and scoring

40 rounds, from 7, 15, and 25 yards.
Max is 400 points.
Try to find a range where you can do that exact CoF without pissing anyone off or breaking any rules.
See how many times you can do it in a session. Four times through would take you maybe an hour, and burn only 160 rounds. Start slow, go faster as you can.

If you can swing it, set up a camera or two, or a smartphone, to video-record your practice. Do an AAR on yourself, and note what you might be doing wrong, or sloppy. Review it before your next shooting session.

Anybody can shoot Expert. It only takes practice.

Here's proof. A well-trained civilian, shooting the official current CoF:

His takeaways are excellent. It's not that hard (while being more difficult than the other services, and most police agencies). For crying out loud, he nails high Expert in 10 minutes or so, in open-toe sandals. It doesn't make you a JSOC ninja, but if you don't have the fundamentals down, you'll suck at it.

And with a pistol, a timer, and 40 rounds, you can knock it out in under 15 minutes.
That means you could do it 4 times in an hour, with rounds left over from 4 boxes of 9mm.

And you should.

Hour 10: Drills and Training

There are approximately one gajillion pistol drills. Type "pistol drills" into the YouTube search box, and you'll find pages of them.
You can do all of them for free during dry fire at home. Then, you can set goals in live-fire and confirm that you've got it.

DO THAT.

One guy a know, a world-champion cowboy shooter, broke in brand new SA Rugers by filling the action with toothpaste, putting snap caps into the cylinder, and doing his shooting drills while watching all his favorite westerns. Like 10,000 times. His actions got butter smooth (obviously, he cleaned the toothpaste out, and properly lubricated the parts, before shooting any live ammo), and he empties a gun in less time that it took you to read this. Like twenty rounds from two SA pistols and a lever gun in single-digit times. With no misses. His routine times for an entire match are lower than some people's times for one or two individual stages in a ten or twelve-stage match.
That's why he's a world champion at a shooting sport with 40-50K participants.

So, how much is your life worth, if you ever need to draw and fire a pistol at someone who means you great bodily harm?

Hour 11: Movement

GET OFF THE X.
Paper targets don't shoot back. Bad guys do. Learn to move while shooting/shoot while moving.

Hour 12: Range CoF

Re-shoot the USMC Pistol course. But do it in motion.

Far to near. Near to far. Side to side at each range stage.
See if you can do all 40 rounds in one constant non-stop, non-fixed spot stage.
I'll let you work out the mags required given the mandatory changes, and you should also practice this dry fire a few dozen(s) of times before trying it live.
Start slow, work to faster.

Use the same score matrix, and see how you compare with doing it standing in concrete.
We want to train for success, and build on earlier skills.

Bear in mind you've already improved on most military pistol training below the JSOC level.