Well that was a first

[dennishoddy]

Back in January of 1966, my Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood was in a company made up primarily of Reservists and National Guard members. I think there might have been five of us that were Regular Army.

When at the range, the cadre tended to try to speed things up. When we were shooting 25 meters to zero, the sergeant looked at the pattern on my target and quickly adjusted the sights on my M-14 and then sent me back. Later in shooting at the range, especially so with pop-up targets, I wasn't hitting good at all. They knew I grew up with rifles, so they were confused. They had one of the sergeants take me back to the 25 meter range and shoot again.

Come to find out, when trying to zero, I was missing the target altogether, and the guy next to me was hitting my target instead of his. I had been zeroed based on his shooting. The new trip got me zeroed and I was good to go from there.

LOL! We had something similar while putting on a Women on Target program at our range. One of the ladies was told she would be shooting at target #6. After multiple courses of fire with a rifle that had been zero'd by a shooter, there were no hits on her target.
Owner of the rifle took the same gun and put a clover leaf group on the target.
Lady took over again and with additional coaching, still could not hit the target on #6. Range safety officer went down to the target and saw groups on the #6 sign over the target. When the RSO told her to shoot at the target at #6 she took literally to shoot at the #6 sign that was 2' above the target. She was following instructions! lol.

 

[rc508pir]

And this guy had been in the Army??? Im guessing he wasnt combat arms, like maybe a PAC Pogue or somthin.

 

[Okie4570]

I'm thinking it may have been the militant order of the Salvation Army????? Left handed shooter sitting on the right hand shooter side of the bench............glad you were able to give him some pointers.

 

[Snattlerake]

When I went through to qualify the targets were not bullseye they were silhouettes that fell backward when hit. The close in targets were so used up they had big gaping holes in the middle of them. I got so frustrated hitting the center mass of those things and they didn't fall. It was then I went to the practice of hitting the ground in front of the target thereby splashing grass and dirt up on the target causing it to fall. I got expert.

 

[retrieverman]

This doesn’t story doesn’t surprise me at all and further proves my point that just because a guy is touting military service DOESN’T make him competent with a firearm.

Years ago, I left a local range when a group of young soldiers showed up. They obviously knew nothing about their guns, and when I offered some help, I was told they were in the military and knew what they were doing. I didn’t wait around to see the results of their incompetence.

 

[DRC458]

Scary. You know they tried to sell him a scope to go with it. That means he was so woefully ignorant that he didn't realize he had to have something for a sighting system!

 

[O4L]

I think you were being punked! Shirley no one is that ignert. [emoji16]

I guess you could of sent him here to OSA where we all would welcome him with open arms and help learn him up on about any subject known to man and maybe even a little gun knowledge here and there.

 

[MacFromOK]

Come to find out, when trying to zero, I was missing the target altogether, and the guy next to me was hitting my target instead of his.

A friend of mine was in the Air Force, and he really wanted the "rifleman" designation (or whatever it's called in the AF). But when he was shooting to qualify, one round missed the target altogether.

Turned out that the guy next to him had an extra hole in his target...

 

[Glock 40]

I shot one of my best groups ever on another guys target at benchrest shoot. Embarrassing as hell. Some of the old guy laughed said it happens all the time. The guys target I shot had his best group ever that day. I said all the fliers were mine.

 

[Tanis143]

I saw several cadets in my CBT that were new to firearms, saw several weapons mishandling and one cadet even swept the whole line with a loaded rifle (think of that scene from Heartbreak Ridge). But, they did teach marksmanship in my BRM, and everyone in my company did qualify. The only thing that irked me was we were "taught" by cadet cadre and some knew hardly anything about firearms. They were under the guidance of 3 NCO's from the 10th mountain, but yeah, it was still pretty messed up.

Side note, one girl in my company had finished firing and put the stock on the ground and rested the birdcage against her cheek. Poor girl now has a permanent reminder as to why that's a bad idea. But, she was new to firearms and no one had warned her the tip of the rifle would get hot...