![]() ![]() As a consequence soldiers consistency was never observed. Grouping was entirely absent from previous qualification iterations, at least in practice, and its failure to be included did a great disservice to the soldiers who were struggling. 4 of the 5 rounds must be under the dispersion standard. The 5 shot string will be fired center point of aim, however the sights or optic will NOT be adjusted during this time. 4 MOA grouping or under is the goal, with the 6 MOA minimum. Grouping is 3 strings of 5 rounds, for a total of 15 rounds, fired by the soldier with the primary sighting system or iron sights to establish that the weapon and the soldier can shoot to standards. The first live fire exercise is grouping. GroupingĪfter the period of instruction on proper marksmanship fundamentals, which is largely unaltered, the first live fire exercise isn’t zeroing. It can be easy, even with poor form to get a false reading for accuracy and point of aim off of a 3 round group.ĩ-Hole tells us why 3 rounds sucks. The 5 round group is far more indicative of both the point of aim the soldier is using and how well the soldier is shooting through dispersion. The old standard for zeroing was 3 round groups. It does not matter what rifle is used and a guide for common optic systems is on the target for adjustments. This means all of the military optics that use MOA adjustments (the majority, and all for service rifles currently) can adjust off this target. ![]() All shots after zeroing must be within the 6 MOA ring, preferably within the 4 MOA ring. The perforated inner ring is a true 4 MOA, the perforated outer ring is 6 MOA. It is 4 MOA (Minute of Angle) tall and 4 MOA wide. Here’s new the layout – The target’s center diamond box is the point of aim. It wasn’t on the old targets either but soldiers treated it as such and it was poorly designed to focus the eye. The new target (A8) helps with this fact and provides an aiming point to zero the sight(s) properly to the 4 MOA goal, 6 MOA minimum that does not leave it subjective to the soldier to pick their “hold” on the silhouette. It is for setting up a fully functional rifle. Zeroing is NOT a threat engagement training exercise. The first phase that is dramatically different from the older methods is on the 25 meter zero range. They couldn’t even jump into another qualification happening at the minimum time frame. Reserve and guard soldiers were twice up the creek, no paddle in sight. They cannot take extra ammunition and go train independently. These soldiers previously had little-to-no recourse to develop their skill set. ![]() Combined with a proper bit of training in dry-fire prep this will turn the qualification into an exercise that has value to soldiers, especially those who are struggling now by being under trained. The new qualification course has changed several things, and oh do I like them. ![]() Just a talk with someone who passed the qualification and try again… New Army Qualification! More Rounds! More Trainable Content! THE lifesaving combat oriented skill set. No emphasis on the importance of marksmanship or that this is a life saving combat oriented skill set. No assistance for soldiers who could not hit targets even 10 times out of 40. In working effort shooters who would qualify first time around would just shoot and then the leftover ammo would be used to give the failing shooters another crack at whack-a-mole in hopes that they passed. In “theory” there is supposed to be a practice (pre-qualification) 40 rounds and then a qualification 40 rounds. It was just get the minimum number of hits to mark your check in the box as “qualified” and get off the range. Minimal direction is given and in my observation even the three shooting positions (prone supported, prone unsupported, and kneeling) were not really adhered to. Qual or Qualification is 40 rounds of whack-a-mole with green pop-up targets. 6 iterations to achieve a useable 25m/300m zero that was good enough, hopefully, and off to the qualification range the soldier went. And if you didn’t qualify, oh well.ġ8 rounds of the 98 was slated to zero your service rifle. It also gave those soldiers no training value. For anyone who shoots regularly, at those distances and these standards, passing this qualification was easy. 98 rounds to train and retrain soldiers in order to effectively engage targets 50-300 meters distance. The old start to finish annual rifle qualification for those “left behind” units consisted of… 98 rounds. Combined arms, infantry, SF, and units expected to actually get into shooting situations are usually better off, but the rest of the “every soldier is a soldier first” and “every Marine a rifleman” gets left behind. They aren’t, the military apparatus doesn’t spend nearly enough time on small arms handling for proficiency. The military likes to pretend that every soldier and Marine is a shooter. ![]()
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