saintmichaeldefendthem
Gold Member
Do you not understand that you don't get the option when qualifying?Sharp Shooter isn't all that impressive. Now had you qualified Expert I might be impressed.
36 out of 40 and you better pray that your weapon doesn't jam. I pulled that off twice in my Army career, other times I got like 35 and changed my marksmanship badge to Sharpshooter. It's harder than you think. Very few soldiers can consistently qualify expert with the M-16A2 rifle. Your criticism is unjustified and more than a little ignorant.
I have never failed to qualify Expert with any weapon I have ever qualified with. That includes the M-16A1 I qualified with back in the 1970's when I was competing in national competitions and I befriended the Army guys at the competition and they invited me to visit their base. They even gave me one of their AMU patches because they liked me so much!
And why on earth would your weapon jam? That happens when there is a mechanical failure (super duper rare) or you don't maintain your weapon properly in which case you get what you deserve.
Most weapon jams occur because the magazines used for weapons qualification on the range are overused 10 round capacity units and loaded by other soldiers, so the quality of the magazine you get can vary. Being on the range, they often have sand, the spring is worn from overuse and feed failures happen, and the ammunition is loaded unevenly, that is, not backed all the way in so the tip of the bullet catches causing a feed failure or a double feed. Every qualification invariably involves weapons malfunctions, something that can't always be avoided.
That's not even to get into the issue of popup targets not registering a hit because they're also overused and bullets go through gaps in the target. This is what those of us who were really in the Army know about range qualifications.
And real Army veterans never upbraid another soldier for qualifying Sharpshooter.
Magazine maintenance is part of weapon maintenance last time I checked. I disassemble, and clean my mags at least once a year. I was never in the Army, but BA's assertion was meant to give him some sort of "expertise" on the subject, but I regularly shoot with guys who never shoot below Expert. Ever. So I felt his declaration a bit presumptous.
One of my best friends was a Navy surgeon and I have pictures of him running a USMC range during WWII. I have had many Marines claim that it is staged, till I let them know he was a Palma Match winner. I learned a tremendous amount from him, and others like him.
You do not use your own magazines. You use the ones that you are given with just enough time to load some rounds into them and start firing. Magazines that are NOT combat ready because they are overused garbage.
Hell, most of the time you don't even qualify with your own weapon anymore. They simply hand you a random one from the armory that the last guy barely cleaned because he wasn't going to fire it again and you just have to deal with it.
Jams are a GIVEN on a military qualifying range, not a possibility. I am not sure if I have ever managed to fire the entire 100 rounds without at least one issue with the weapon. Last time it was particularly fun when MY SIGHT FELL OFF. The 'equipment' we have to work with is pathetic at best.
I did try to explain this. Springs wear out, sand gets in (sand ALWAYS gets in!) and jams it. Westwall comes off as a naive dilettante criticizing what he doesn't understand. These ten round and thirty round magazines are used repeatedly, daily, jamming in rounds with stripper clips and putting them out on the range to be spent and sent back to be reloaded. Double feeds, feed failures, and other malfunctions are common. This is what those of us who really served in the Army understand.