Sharpshooter!!

Sorry for not updating the last few days.  I've been a little busy/broken, plus the internet here hasn't been working all that well.

Went back out to the range today to finish zeroing/qualifying with my M4.  Got there before the range was even set up for the day, so we sat around for a while doing nothing (hurry up and wait much?).  Finally got onto the range and zeroed my iron sights in about 18 rounds...spot on.  Moved to my CCO(fancy red-dot optic) and took another 21 or so rounds to get that right, mostly because it was my first time shooting with it, other than a familiarization back in March or April.  So once I finished that the group of us from my unit walked over to the qualifying range...which was a bit of a shit-show.  They only had 6 lanes running at a time, which meant we had to sit and wait again to get out there.  The warming tent was up and running but it was so warm in there the ground around it was that deep, sticky mud that its hard to walk through.

Once I got out onto the range with my coach for the day things went great.  Last time I qualified I shot a 23 out of 40...the minimum.  Today was a little different.  The range was clear, no trees or stumps blocking targets, and the targets worked well (mostly).  The NCO running the range was outstanding, he walked us through which targets belonged to which lane, which ones didn't always drop down after you hit them, and which lanes were doing well that day.

I got to my firing point and got comfortable in the position.  Shooting block just right...legs comfortable...rifle tight to my shoulder...optic just bright enough to see but dim enough that the dot didn't wash out the target.  When you qualify you fire 40 rounds total, hypothetically 1 per target...20 on the ground with the rifle supported by the block (prone supported), 10 more on the ground with you supporting the rifle (prone unsupported), and 10 kneeling.  Out of those 40 targets I hit 31!!!!  Best I've ever done.

After I received my score from the range officer, I moved back to the zero range to do NBC qualification.  That's when you fire at a pop up target 50 meters away while wearing your gas mask.  You've got 20 rounds and you need to hit 11.  Not too hard...get it sighted up and hold it there...wait for it to pop up and shoot.  Right now I'm waiting to head out again for the night fire...same kind of thing, just at night (no gas mask though).

After that the 3 of us at the range are going to meet up with the rest of the unit at a field training sight where we're going to be spending the next 4 days or so.  Once we're back from that we move out to a 2 day field exercise so it might be a while before I get a chance to post again.