Seems it’s true for M16s too.

There are two points here – for you grunts who have to qualify and want to earn marksmanship badges, it pays to “preflight” you equipment.

There’s an old saying, “It’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools.” Yes, that’s true. But it assumes the tools are properly sharpened before use.

I once worked with a young police sniper who, immediately after returning from an update class, couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn. He didn’t question his equipment, and the result was he lost his confidence and wasn’t much good to anyone. His SGT sent the man to me. I shot his rifle (a nice Remington .308 bolt gun). Guess what: I couldn’t hit anything either!! So I told him to let me borrow his rifle for a few days. On my range, it shot great: same hole at 100 yds. Hmmm. Same rifle, same shooter, different range? NO! I didn’t have his ammo!! Turned out the batch of ammo he had was trash for his gun. When he switched to what I was using – ZING – he was A-OK again. It was his equipment.

When at FLETC in 2000, same sort of thing happened. A federal LEO who was at firearms instructor school couldn’t shoot. Now his command wouldn’t have sent him there if he couldn’t shoot … but he couldn’t. Turned out his piece-of-trash pistol had a loose rear sight. The sight was wobbling left and right – so his shots were spraying left and right. Once that sight was tightened – ZING – he was A-OK again. It was his equipment.

At the link, you’ll find these words, “Confirm your weapon’s ability with a good, solid, prone supported shooting session. If it is excessively large get a known good shooter to confirm that the large group wasn’t your own marksmanship failure.” Yes, it’s nice to get a 2nd, confirming opinion. But if you know how to do it right and YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT, check you equipment (gun & ammo). It’s not always the shooter.

* The hole drilled in the magazine reduces the odds of the ‘rookie mistake’ of failure to put in 8-rounds. Just load ’til you see brass. When the magazine is inserted, the hole doesn’t show – so it’s a legal mod. Count AND ‘load to brass’ = “belts & suspenders”