This is my Rifle Part Deux

I’ve been stretching my writing out lately. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say it’s that I get my inspiration from home and well, I haven’t been home much. I’ll try to be a good blogger and post more frequently but there are no guarantees. This week you get a little treat: This is my Rifle Part Deux

So, we went to the field last week with the intent of getting battle site zeros (we call them BZOs) for all of our Marines and their rifles. Getting a BZO is important because it ensures that whatever a Marine lines up his sights on is what he hits and in a world of moving targets that’s important. I must say with satisfaction that the mission was accomplished. In my case it was a textbook shoot. You fire 10 rounds to BZO, 2 strings of three and 1 string of four. You get a long time to take the shots and with good reason. They need to be good well aimed shoots in order to ascertain where your rifle shoots given your particular slant (how you lay in the prone position given to personal variation) on the prone (lying down) position and the weather variables (it was a sunny cloudless day with no wind). My first three shots formed a nice ¾” triangle up and to the left of center mass (the center of the black portion of the target). Accordingly I adjusted my sights down and right the appropriate number of clicks and turns (these are very technical terms…). My second three shot group formed a nice ½” group in the center of my target and I was reminded of the story of Copernicus saying “Eureka I’ve found it” as I viewed my target with grim satisfaction. The final four shots performed the cu de grace on the defenseless paper and the rest was ducks in a barrel. We continued our training over the next few days with tactical shooting and drills. It was hands down, some of the best pre-deployment tactical firearms training we have received as a unit. I pray that we won’t have to use much of it on this next ‘go around’.