Time to catch up!

First I say I am sorry for the delay in posts, it has been a LONG and hectic week and all I have felt like doing when I get home is sleep.   I will start with July 4th, the family and I spent the day in Washington D.C.  Instead of driving, we parked at the southern most stop,and took the metro (subway) into the city.  We attended the parade and then made our way to the Capital lawn where we camped out for the fireworks.  Let me just say, you should spend at least one independence day in the Nation's Capital.  See facebook for pictures.  Tuesday was the start of a three week evolution at the rifle and pistol range.  The temps here in Virginia hovered around 100 for most of the week and we spent most of it outside.  the first two days were spent learning about our two main weapon systems, the M16A4 service rifle and the M9 pistol, and the correct way to shoot them.  This includes a lot of practice time getting into the proper positions and dry firing (not bullets) so that the coaches can help get you into the proper form.  It doesn't sound like much, but when you are doing it for 4 hours at a time it can become exhausting.  Plus, my age is starting to catch up to me, so sitting Indian style bent in half (this is what we call the sitting position), or sitting with one foot bent under me and the other kicked out in front with my elbow resting on my knee ( this is what we call the kneeling) has lead to some serious back pains.  Friday we actually went to the range and fired our rifles to zero them (adjusted the sights to make sure we hit what we were aiming at)  This process first starts with a 3 mile hike at 0450, fire at the rifle range, fire at the pistol range, pull butts (the term used for pulling down the targets, marking them, and then sending them back up so the shooter can see where he/she hit) and then a 3 mile hike back to the barracks.  This will be the process for all of next week, and the average time between the two hikes is around  9 hours.  Now a little background on the range for me.  I have never shot the pistol in the Marine Corps so it is new to me, but the rifle I have qualified on 4 times, three of those times I have shot Expert (the top qualification, followed by sharpshooter, then marksmen).  So for the past week, I have been talking a lot of trash about how great of a shot I am, and how I will be the company high shooter ( meaning I will shoot higher than the other 276 Marines in my company).  Luckily, yesterday I was able to reinforce my comments with actually results.  After gaining an initial zero at 36 yards, we went to the 200 yard line (two football fields) to further refine our sights.  My first set of 3 shots was in the black but high and a little to the right so I adjusted, the next set was centered and to the right, and my last set of 4 shots was all dead center.  My roommate with whom I have a bet with to see who will shoot a higher combined rifle/pistol score said he no longer wanted to bet with me after see my shots.(He shoots on the target right next to me, so I also see how he shoots.)   As for qualification, we shoot in the sitting, kneeling, and prone(laying down) and standing at the 200 yard line, sitting and prone  at the 300 yard line, and prone in the 500 yard line.  To get expert you have to hit dead center 25 out of 50 times while getting no less than the 4 ring the other 25 times(the 4 ring is just outside of the bulls eye).  At the pistol range we shoot everything in the standing, at distances of 7,15, and 25 yards.  The 25 yard line is slow fire, where you have 20 minutes to shoot 15 rounds.  the 7 yard line, you shoot 5 rounds, but for each round the target only appears for 3 secs.  Then you shoot another 8 rounds but this time you get 4 secs to shoot 2 rounds. At the 15 yard line you get 20 secs to shoot two magazines with 3 rounds each, it is designed to test your reload speed.

For the next week I will probably only post what my daily score was each range.  Mon-Thurs is practice, and Friday is Qualification. For your reference here is the required scores for each level.

Rifle - Expert(220)   Sharpshooter(210)   Marksman(190)
Pistol - Expert(345)  Sharpshooter(305)  Marksman(245)