I.G.B.
I would think anyone as experienced as yourself would do well on a basic rifle qualification course.
I qualified "expert" at nineteen first at Ft. Knox with an XM-16E1 that had issues some three decades ago. Only once in my service did I score less than "expert" and that is a long story involving a 2LT.
Before I entered service my "High Power" shooting was limited to a few rounds from family and friends hunting rifles, a couple of clips through an M-1,
literally five shots through an M-14 and a few hundred from an M-1 Carbine.
What I think allowed me to shoot "expert" was the thousands of rounds I shot through aperature sighted Remington 513T and Winchester 52D rifles in highschool and the thousand or so I fired through tangent sighted sporting .22LRs like my old Savage stevens 67DL or Dad's Nylon 66 or my anchient WInchester 67 single shot.
At the Citadel during my one semester there I was one of four freshmen to earn "Expert" at small bore and that with only about 40 rounds practice weeks earlier.
I believe that shooting a .22LR allows one to concentrate more on position, control, and trigger manipulation than shooting high power. Before folks start, yes I have since done a far amount of shooting with centerfires sence then my last two club matches Ishot in I used an M1903A3 and an AR-180 in. I have owned and shot Garands and such since then as well and qualified with the G3 in Germany.
I still like to drop back to the .22LR frequently. WHen I was having dismal results with an HK94, the semi only long barreled MP-5 wannabe, I stopped and picked up my .22LR to assure myself it was not me.
A couple of years ago I took and Urban Rifle course taught by Maj. J.E. Land USMC Ret. Some of you will recall that besides being a national champion High Power Shooter himself, he was also Carlos Hathcock's coach when White Feather first started shooting competitions and later was Hathcock's commander in VN and shot in the field, sometimes with Hathcock and sometimes with others himself, as well.
He said to me in a break in the class that whenever Marine Scout Snipers or HP Competitors seemed to be having trouble with HP that he put them back on the .22LR and they shot as far as 200 meters with them to re enforce leassons about trajectory and wind drift. He said this always got folks back on track.
Personally I feel just the opposite of some folks here. I believe practice with a crappy trigger or a less accurate rifle does little to prepare one for a different crappy trigger and crappy barrel. I think reducing variables out side of yourself as much as possible make you learn to be a better shooter by controlling yourself.
As far as shooting a possible on a GI course of fire, unless it is your intention to try to be a precision shooter by impressing some one from a team that by sheer luck is whatching your lane, I can see little reason carreer wise to do so. Unless things have changed only the qualification, not the score will follow you around. The guy that drops just enough to make expert will have the same thing in his records as the guy that shoots the possible.
If I had to buy a new centerfire I would buy and AR-15 with everything as much like a stock M-16A2 as possible, just to be comfortable with its shape and controls. I would get lots of practice obtaining a zero, to the point of having someone else crank the sights off, front and rear so you get to start from scratch as it were every time. Obtaing battle sight and using the proper sight setting are key to qauifying with any M-16. I would also search for some of the reduced range targets that allow qualification at 25 meters, just for the immediate feed back and because they may require you to obtain a other zero just for them and it gives you more practice at that.
Just learning to opperate the gun and becoming very familure with it will give you an advantage over most of the troopers. You will not be fumbling for unfamilure controls or using them improperly when the targets come up. You will know the fastest safe way to make magazine changes.
Get a GI users manual and learn the Army Way of doing things, especially the immediate action drill. It helps to have some dummy rounds for that and practice it where it would be safe if they magically turned into ball ammo.
I admit it....I cheated on every one of the popup only courses I qualified on. I studied available texts and learned about the trajectory of the bullet with regard to the sights when set at Battle Sight Zero ( in those days with the A1s this was 250meter Zero with the short sight). Despite assurences that the round would strike every target when held in high center mass I noted that folks tened to shoot over at 150 and under at 300 so I held a little low at 150 and a little high at 300. I also shot to hit undamaged parts of the target at close range as the old target system would sometimes not register hits through shot out areas. I went for upperchest/head shots on the 25 and 50 meter and aimed a smidgion low at 100 to get the round between the damaged area and the bottom of the target. It was also posible to take that target in that system with the splash of a near miss low that threw up debris at a velocity that registed as a hit so even if I was a little off I still got a hit.
I also feel that familuraity with the weapon would help in night firing. We fired at night wihour NVDs or flairs at 25 and 50 meter targets that had little strobes set before them breifly ligth them up as though by there muzzle flash. Both in Infantry AIT and in Europe we shot under flares. In every case the grade was just GO or NO GO. The chemical mask of the time had rigid eyepieces so weird positions go used. Guess what? Those with the most familurarity with the weapons and the best day time scores shot best even when those weird positions were made up on the site.
My unit in Europe had a very high rate for earning the EIB. The Expert Infantry badge was normally won by 3 percent or lest of those testing in any year. The 100 guys testing in 1974 in my unit took 18 awards of the EIB. the other two companys each to twice thae average. One of the major reasons for us doing so wel was shooting expert was required to win the Badge. Granted we chot between two and three times what any other Infantry in Europe at the time did because of job requirements but I think it had much to do with the fact that we spent far more days with a rifle in our hands than other units. Part of our job required that we sit and wait for 3 hours at a time in a ready room and so many of us used the time to practice balancing a dime on the barrle while squeezing off a dry fire shot. A few times we shot the box, a system where by one checks to see they have consistant sight picture and sight alignment with the rifle fixed solidly in a box and a movable target befor a piec of paper. One ordered the target holder to move ther target up, down ,left or right until everything was perfect adn the target was marked. This allowed us to simulate 100 meter shooting from across the room. Those three thing allowed us to be familure with the rifle, learn good trigger control with our own issue rifle and learn sight alignment and sight picture to a fair degree and with the extra actual shooting this meant more shot expert so more could get by on the easier stuff like the killer map adn compass day and night courses, the forced march with gear, and the today hands on test (range finding was the killer here, oddly those that practiced such anyway for rifle shooting and calls for fire had no problem here).
My point being that familurarity with the weapon is a Good Thing(TM).
So if you have the money for any thing beyound a .22LR get an AR-15 done up to current A2 specs.
Rather than any other centerfire I would get a .22LR.
and now you know why.
-Bob Hollingsworth