#Marksmanship

The Marine Corps has long preached a mantra that every Marine is a rifleman first—and now they’re changing how those riflemen are trained, to make them more effective in combat.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world and its many types of guns, ammunition types, and history! Today we will be discussing a program that has taught thousands of Americans the basics of rifle marksmanship with not only centerfire rifles but more affordable and more accessible rimfire firearms like the 10/22. What we’re talking about today is Project Appleseed. Project Appleseed is a non-profit instructional program with the aim of training the civilian population with basic marksmanship fundamentals through various clinics and events put on throughout the country. Today we’ll explain the origins of the Appleseed Project, and some of the pertinent information surrounding the rules, and practices of participating in a clinic itself.

The B8 target sizing is important to understand in order to draw a good correlation. The B8 target gets its name from being 8″ in diameter. The 9 ring is 5.54″, 10 ring is 3.36″ and the X ring is 1.695″ in diameter.

“Every Marine is, first and foremost, a rifleman. All other conditions are secondary.” When General Alfred M. Gray Jr. first spoke these words many years ago, he probably didn’t anticipate just how ubiquitous they would become for the Marines who were to follow. Prior to becoming the 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1987, Gray used the experience and lessons learned from his time in Korea and Vietnam to oversee significant updates to USMC training, including the emphasis on marksmanship from whence his famous quote came. Although some infantry Marines scoff at the idea that their non-combat counterparts could be their equals when it comes to the art and science of the gun, in general, the “ every Marine a rifleman” idea has taken root over the last half-century or so.

The Marine Corps Annual Rifle Qualification has remained relatively the same for the past century or so. The Annual Marine Corps Marksmanship Rifle qualification currently allows marines to gain a marksmanship badge that remains with them throughout their military career. By as early as 2021, Marines could be going through a drastically different qualification course that will test their marksmanship skills even further.

Riflemen from the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Gurkha Rifles have proved their skills during the British Army’s annual Army Operational Shooting Competition at the historic Bisley ranges. Shooting teams from across the British Army took part in the competition.

Soldier Systems Daily recently shared a video purporting to outline the US Army’s new rifle qualification. The video posted by Circle Dog Production shows the 40-round course of fire that soldiers may soon have to shoot to qualify.

Safety and marksmanship all begin somewhere for many of us. We at TFB believe it is extremely important to give back to the next generation of shooters, hunters, and collectors that will influence our passions long after we are dead and gone. In this episode of TFB TV, we look at a rifle club that Miles started in 2009 at his old high school, Valley Forge Military Academy & College. That was almost a decade ago and since then the club has grown dramatically in size to what it once was. Thanks to the efforts of the current faculty advisor, Christopher Bechtel. Today the rifle club is extremely well organized, taking cadets to various competitions, tactical shooting, and even historical small arms familiarization. But most importantly is passing the ability to teach cadets safety and marksmanship, skills that they can use for the rest of their lives.

In examining the future of infantry capability, we must not only be aware of potential technological solutions, but of the need to re-think and re-work what it means to train and prepare troops for future battlefields. At the core of this is the simple matter of man and rifle, of marksmanship.

The US Army’s new centralized procurement organization has been named: In his address at the Eisenhower Luncheon at the 2017 Association of the United States Army, US Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley announced the creation of a Futures and Modernization Command (FMC), which would oversee the process of research, development, testing, evaluation, and procurement (RDTE&P) from start to finish. In his address, General Milley outlined a new process which would fundamentally change the current procurement model to a new one based on that used by US Special Operations Command:

US Army, what on earth are you doing?

US Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley has released a letter outlining a major reform and restructuring effort for US Army weapons development, testing, and procurement. In the letter, CSA General Milley spoke of the need for a new procurement command structure:

After being cancelled in mid-2016, could the M4 Carbine upgrade program still be alive? That is the suggestion from a line in the US Army’s justification for its research budget in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which references an “M4A2 Plus Rifle” as a new weapons development effort:

With the termination of the Interim Combat Service Rifle, the CSASS program on hold, and the XM25 CDTE dead and buried, many are wondering: When will the Army get its act together on small arms? Given the long history of Army program failures, though, maybe a better question would be: If the Army can’t take the lead on small arms development, who can?

The United States House of Representatives has just passed their version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and included within it is a provision that will mandate the release of all M1911 handguns currently in US Army inventory to the Civilian Marksmanship Program, for distribution to eligible US civilians. The new bill would overwrite the 2016 NDAA, which allowed for the release of 10,000 of the pistols, but did not mandate it. The text of Section 1064 of the 2018 NDAA is as follows: