NIGHTLORD40K
Member
Ive told this story before, but its good and relevant, so here gos again-How much time and effort does the military actually put into teaching people to shoot, and how much do they actually get to shoot throughout the year to improve and maintain thier skills, if they have any?
Over the years, Ive shot with quite a few ex and current military, and the majority of them were at best mediocre shooters.
And to bump the scary up, the majority had no real FA training and were usually the scariest people that ever shot our guns.
I made the mistake, just once, of letting someone who claimed to be an experienced combat vet, who could not control or shoot a 9mm SMG, that my kids were easily shooting at 6. Never did that again.
One of my coworkers, in his late 30's is a recent transplant from the favelas of Brazil. He asked if he could accompany a few of us on our next range trip. I asked if he had any experience and he stated that he had been a member of a paramilitary reserve unit back home and they had trained with Garands. I said cool, Ill bring my M1 among other things.
We get to the range, and this gentleman was one of the first up shooters I handed him my Garand and a couple of loaded enbloc clips. He stepped to the line, expertly inserted the clip and blazed away. All eight shots on the paper, six in the black (at 25yd). He inserted the next clip and repeated the performance.
Handing me back my rifle, he had an ear-to-ear smile. "Wow, that was great," he exclaimed, "Ive always wanted to try that!"
"Oh?" I replied, "In thought you had trained with the M1 back home?"
"Oh, yes we trained many times, but never fired. We never had any live ammunition."