Military/LEO-Odd Targets?

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Mizzle187

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OK I was just getting my fix of Mail Call :D and hw was at Camp Pendleton at one of the ranges. Tehy were shooting the Mark 19 grenade launcher into a mountain where the remains of an armored something was. Well a few minutes into the clip they showed a big ass bird(some kind of buzzard Im assuming but I wouldnt put it past them if it was a eagle :rolleyes: ) flying and a guy trying to spray it with the M19. I about spit out my drink when I saw this. It didnt help that everyone in the background was hootin and cheering! Crazy SOB's . It got me thinking about what other types of animals have been shot at and/or killed or wounded when training by Military,LEO,etc... You dont have to name the group you were with if you dont feel the need to. Just curious!
 
i have never shot at any wildlife while at a military range, that is one of the first things they tell you in your safety briefing. it is a felony if you do so nobody i have ever been around has ever shot at wildlife, we don't make enough money anyway, and we don't need to take chances on loosing pay and rank. now in iraq it was a different story.:)
 
I worked with a guy who was ex-Coast Guard and ex-Military. He was stationed in Guam and Hawaii mainly. One of his favorite stories was to tell us about when he saw a cliffside from his boat that was covered with monkeys, and that he shot them up with a .50 full auto.
I already had my suspicions that he had gone crazy in the sun but this sealed it.
 
I've seen that episode and don't remember them seeing any bird or bird being shot at, though its possible I missed it.

I've heard stories about American pilots strafing livestock from the airplane technitions, though its just hearsay and I doubt it would be true, considering there's a gun camera that films with every shot.
 
Damn it man! I bet that .50 doesnt leave much monkey meat! There was definitly a bird, I rewinded it about 5 times. Im still laughing.
 
Several years ago at Ft Sill, OK a herd of elk wandered into the target area during firing of the Marine Corps 155mm howitzer. I think the final toll was 2 dead, several wounded and had to be destroyed.

The real final toll was a Marine 1st Lt who's career was over. A lot of paperwork up and down the chain, several people who ended up at office hours (Article 15, Captain's mast, etc).

At the time I was working with the wife of the Marine Detachment XO, so I got to stay up to date with the whole thing.

It was pretty ugly for quite a while for the CO and XO.

bob
 
It all depends on where you are at. On some posts if wildlife enters the impact area you have to cease fire. And then in some places it doesn't matter. And some wildlife is so protected (the desert tortise at Ft Irwin), that if encounter one and scare it into dropping it's load of water, you have to stop training and call a medevac for it.

In most cases the wildlife knows where it can be shot and where it can't. I was running an M60 range at Ft McCoy WI back in the early 80s and two deer wandered into the range fan. I shut the range down and they ambled across the range and started browsing on a couple trees just outside the safety fan. I started the range up, figuring the deer would take off as soon as we started shooting, but one just looked up and as if to say; "I see you guys are using the machine gun range today." and went right back to browsing. The deer had to know they wouldn't be shot where they were standing.

The last time I ran a range at Ft Campbell, you didn't have to cease fire when wildlife crossed the impact area.

Jeff
 
Jeff White said:
In most cases the wildlife knows where it can be shot and where it can't

I've heard of elephants in Africa grazing in one protected area, then overnight, rushing through unprotected territory to a protected area not contiguous with the first. These areas are not defined with fences or anything physical. They just seem to know where they are hunted and where they aren't.
 
And here I thought civilian slob hunters were bad

I seriously hope that both the military and law enforcement departments have rules against wantonly shooting animals just to shoot them. It reflects poorly on the caliber (pun intended) of the people in the service and would make for very bad public relations.

The chief deputy in my county, the guy one step down from the sheriff, has a bad PR problem because he stated during an open house for the area crime watches to visit the justice center complex that he would shoot any animal he thought was a threat during a SWAT operation even if it were secured in a cage and showed no aggression. It hasn't helped him that he was about to shoot someone's dog that the local volunteer fire department rescued and was tending to during a house fire. The pet's owner and the volunteer fire fighters were about to use heavy blunt objects on him until he holstered his weapon. This person has also abused an ex-wife and threatened the lives of the men that have tried to date his ex-wife.

But enough of that and back to the topic. I realize that operations orders vary from military installation to installation. I am hoping that the integrity and intellect of those serving us and protecting us from harm is of such a high level that shooting an animal just to use it for target practice is not something that crosses their minds. That is the high road thing to do, is it not?

I am not a PETA member (ick). I terminate predators that threaten my livestock and pets, but I don't just shoot them to shoot them. If I can salvage the pelt or other parts of them for something, I do so. I often use the meat to bait traps for other animals that are causing problems. I also hunt animals specifically for eating.
 
My instructor ran over a few dogs in Iraq with his Bradley. The same guy also scouts out the range for a lucky tree when using automatic weapons. They all take turns mowing down the tree.
 
In the bad old days at Ft. Sherman in teh canal Zone we used to have contests to see who could set them most accurate VT fuses. The object was to get an air burst in the middle of the flock of buzzards that constantly circle the range. Pretty tough really as you had to adjust time and increment to get the right time of flight.:evil:

I have seen a couple of attempts at engaging wildlife over the years, most with very embarrassing results. I remember 2 deer on the Medina Annex range that made it through 25 m-60 gunners without a scratch, over 400 rds worth. Watched 3 much more experienced gunners engage a coyote at 400 yards with the same result.

Things changed a lot over the years and most places they will call a cease fire for wildlife.

Sam
 
When I was going through Basic Training at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, in 1959, an occasional whitetail deer or two would wander onto the K.D. (Known Distance) Range while we were shooting M1 Garands. The noise of the M1s firing didn't bother the deer one bit!

The Range Lt. would immediately call a Cease Fire and when the weapons were safe, several of the target pullers in the pits would go out and shooo the deer off the range.

Never heard of a deer being killed at Chaffee while I was there.

FWIW. L.W.
 
I wanted to fire on a bat one night. I and two others were standing armed guard overnight on a surplus of grenades on the range at 29 Palms, when our regiment went way too long in our training evolution. Middle of the night, I'm standing on the berm looking at the stars and lights, damned bat landed on my head from out of nowhere. sumbitch.

grenade.gif
 
We got a call for fire on grazing water buffalo in I-Corps in 1970. We lobbed in a few 5"/38's and made burgers out of it. I don't know that it was a legitimate target, just that it was a target. It did break the monotony of shelling "suspected enemy location" targets which was just so much jungle.

I can remember in the 70's having protesters wanting to shut down Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) training off Kahoolawe Island in Hawaii because it was in the vicinity of a whale breeding area. The Admiral of Third Fleet was even slapped by one of the protesters.
 
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