On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 17:30:50 GMT, "Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:Not nearly impressive as the fact that I worked on gun ranges teaching
adults how to shoot from the time I was 15 until I entered the Air Force and
yet I'm reading about how all you experts know so much about guns. BTW,
Marines have to qualify by hitting a target at a half mile away. Yet
according to some, you can't even shoot that far.
Marines qualify at 500 meters, which is well short of the 800 odd
meters in a half-mile. Its more than the normal 300 meter targets used
by the U.S.Army, but the 200, 250 and 300 targets were mostly used to
demonstrate the rise in trajectory at the 220-250 meter range anyway
(assume that is still the case). Needless to say, a high velocity
bullet like the M-16 uses has dramatic changes once that falls away.
OTOH, since my primary real experience was 100 meters to 200 meters
and that was unusual enough (most small arms fire, including sniper
fire, is well under 200 meters, the vast majority under 100 and the
long head shots rarely were attempted except in movies - head shots
being fundamentally stupid to begin with). 300 meters and further are
long and unusual shots and with the M-16 are extremely subject to
windage that the shooter doesn't even know about.
Fire arm qualifiaction is done on body targets, kick back targets. In
open fire, a M-16 bullet killing a person by hitting them dead center
at 200 yards is little different than hitting the person close enough
to center to render them incapacitated - other than less attention is
given to a dead man than one screaming on the ground in the process of
slow dying. You aren't trained to bulls-eyes, but to knock
ass-backwards the top half of a man's body - and that's how it should
be. Anyone shooting for bulls eyes would be dead before he hit one,
most cases, and anyone taking head shots would have too many
unnecessary misses or spend time ringing helmets.
So the whole Marine mythos starts a lot closer in - 500 meters
compared to 300, and kick back targets, not center targets - and has
little to nothing to do with combat or what happens when you fire a
weapon in the real world. OTOH, as a Army type, I always thought 'send
in the Marines' was an absolutely great idea...
Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...