Today was a good day. But it almost wasn't -- I snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, in my own little way.
After a full day of convoy drills, we rode over to Clear Creek rifle range. I say rode to be inclusive of our HMMWV, which was being towed, having lost it's transmission during a hasty recovery of another vehicle which had been 'hit' by and IED.
At any rate, we were all exausted, and hadn't eaten at all yet. (Busy morning.) We arrived at the range at about 1620 hrs, and we hurried and downed some MREs, grounded our gear (except our armour and weapons) and headed to the range.
I went straight for the zeroing range, having dropped, bumped, and man-handled my M4 quite a bit in the last couple of weeks (well, I only dropped it once, but it got bumped about 43,000 times). When we arrived, we were informed that they were running out of ammo! We had an appointment, but what can you do? So Chief Christ suggested we leave the limited ammo to those who 'need to zero', meaning, those who weren't quite on board last time we zeroed, and needed to do it for the first time.
That's where I made my mistake. I always assume that if something is important to me, it must be important to everyone else in my situation. So I gave up my spot so someone who 'really needed to' could zero. Then I walked over to the qualifying range.
We had all qualified, but we wanted to shoot there just for the practice. It consists of 40 pop-up targets, all little green men, which fall if you hit them. You are given 40 rounds (in 3 magazines) and shoot 20 in the supported prone, 10 in the unsupported prone, and 10 in the kneeling position. To qualify on the rifle, you must hit 23 of the 40 targets. When I qualified I hit 31, which was actually pretty good in comparison to most of my unit.
But today my sights were off. I started shooting and missed the first two or three. longer shots, the ones at 300 meters and more. No problem, I thought. I can see the dirt that gets kicked up by the slug, so I'll adjust accordingly until I know in which direction and how much to divert my sight to hit the target.
Well it didn't work. I thought I was hitting low and right, so I put the red dot high and left. I played with that for a few shots, and it didn't seem to work too well. I would hit one, then on the next I would try to do the same thing, and I would miss the target. I ended up scoring a 14/40. I felt frustrated and annoyed. I walked off the range and was headed back to the HMMWVs, when I realized I had done the same thing I always do. I had given up something of importance to me (the chance to zero) because I thought it was important to those who would benefit from my loss. But why should I think that? If someone is a lousy shot, and can't get their grouping tight enough to adjust their sights, it's probably at least partially due to their lack of interest in shooting.
So I veered right, and headed back to the zeroing range. I walked right up to the clearing barrel and just stood there under the control tower until I was recognized. I said I needed to zero, and they gave my their last 10 rounds. I laid down and zeroed in three groupings (3,3,4) moving 28 up, 12 right, then 10 up, 8 right. Then I walked back to the qualifying range, got a lane, and started shooting. I missed two on the supported prone, but after that I hit everything I aimed at. So I got a 38/40. I was surprised how much it affected me. It made the whole day a success. Riding back to the barracks, I actually felt like I was a more capable combatant with my M4, it was my friend, not simply my co-traveler.
I feel like there must be some deep metaphorical significance to the experience. Something having to do with the value of a correct bearing, and a proper orientation between the methods you use to reach your goals and the feedback that tells you if you are hitting them. Or maybe a lesson about rushing into things by skipping the preparation, then trying to correct for preventable errors at crunch time. Or the value of looking out for number one, since no-one else will if you don't (some of our people didn't get to zero that wanted to). Or some other life lesson. But I can't seem to flesh it out in my mind.
There's one thing I do know. I shot a 38/40 and today was a good day.
After a full day of convoy drills, we rode over to Clear Creek rifle range. I say rode to be inclusive of our HMMWV, which was being towed, having lost it's transmission during a hasty recovery of another vehicle which had been 'hit' by and IED.
At any rate, we were all exausted, and hadn't eaten at all yet. (Busy morning.) We arrived at the range at about 1620 hrs, and we hurried and downed some MREs, grounded our gear (except our armour and weapons) and headed to the range.
I went straight for the zeroing range, having dropped, bumped, and man-handled my M4 quite a bit in the last couple of weeks (well, I only dropped it once, but it got bumped about 43,000 times). When we arrived, we were informed that they were running out of ammo! We had an appointment, but what can you do? So Chief Christ suggested we leave the limited ammo to those who 'need to zero', meaning, those who weren't quite on board last time we zeroed, and needed to do it for the first time.
That's where I made my mistake. I always assume that if something is important to me, it must be important to everyone else in my situation. So I gave up my spot so someone who 'really needed to' could zero. Then I walked over to the qualifying range.
We had all qualified, but we wanted to shoot there just for the practice. It consists of 40 pop-up targets, all little green men, which fall if you hit them. You are given 40 rounds (in 3 magazines) and shoot 20 in the supported prone, 10 in the unsupported prone, and 10 in the kneeling position. To qualify on the rifle, you must hit 23 of the 40 targets. When I qualified I hit 31, which was actually pretty good in comparison to most of my unit.
But today my sights were off. I started shooting and missed the first two or three. longer shots, the ones at 300 meters and more. No problem, I thought. I can see the dirt that gets kicked up by the slug, so I'll adjust accordingly until I know in which direction and how much to divert my sight to hit the target.
Well it didn't work. I thought I was hitting low and right, so I put the red dot high and left. I played with that for a few shots, and it didn't seem to work too well. I would hit one, then on the next I would try to do the same thing, and I would miss the target. I ended up scoring a 14/40. I felt frustrated and annoyed. I walked off the range and was headed back to the HMMWVs, when I realized I had done the same thing I always do. I had given up something of importance to me (the chance to zero) because I thought it was important to those who would benefit from my loss. But why should I think that? If someone is a lousy shot, and can't get their grouping tight enough to adjust their sights, it's probably at least partially due to their lack of interest in shooting.
So I veered right, and headed back to the zeroing range. I walked right up to the clearing barrel and just stood there under the control tower until I was recognized. I said I needed to zero, and they gave my their last 10 rounds. I laid down and zeroed in three groupings (3,3,4) moving 28 up, 12 right, then 10 up, 8 right. Then I walked back to the qualifying range, got a lane, and started shooting. I missed two on the supported prone, but after that I hit everything I aimed at. So I got a 38/40. I was surprised how much it affected me. It made the whole day a success. Riding back to the barracks, I actually felt like I was a more capable combatant with my M4, it was my friend, not simply my co-traveler.
I feel like there must be some deep metaphorical significance to the experience. Something having to do with the value of a correct bearing, and a proper orientation between the methods you use to reach your goals and the feedback that tells you if you are hitting them. Or maybe a lesson about rushing into things by skipping the preparation, then trying to correct for preventable errors at crunch time. Or the value of looking out for number one, since no-one else will if you don't (some of our people didn't get to zero that wanted to). Or some other life lesson. But I can't seem to flesh it out in my mind.
There's one thing I do know. I shot a 38/40 and today was a good day.
