Author Archives: John M. Buol Jr.

All-Around Champion At National Matches?

by John M. Buol Jr.

From 1935 to 1939, an All-Around Championship was held to determine the best Smallbore, High Power, and Precision Pistol marksman.

The DuPont Trophy, a bronze statue of a medieval archer poised with his longbow at full draw, was bestowed on the winner of the All-Around Championship. This aggregate match comprised a centerfire pistol National Match Course; preliminary Smallbore Dewar Match Course; and four High Power matches that included slow fire; standing and prone, and rapid fire; sitting and prone, at ranges form 200 to 1000 yards for an aggregate of 1100 points. In 1935 and 1936, a service pistol aggregate was also fired, along with a 200-yard Smallbore rifle prone slow fire match and a 50-yard and 100-yard, 40-shot Smallbore prone match instead of the preliminary Dewar for an aggregate of 19000 points.

Winners of the All-Around Championship
1939: 1st Lt. Walter R. Walsh, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (1058/1100)
1938: Petty Officer 1st Class Melvon O. Wilson, U.S. Coast Guard (1054/2200)
1937: 2nd Lt. William Hancock, Infantry, U.S. Army (1051/1100)
1936: Capt. Sidney R. Hinds, Infantry, U.S. Army (1797/1900)
1935: Deputy Henry J. Adams, Jr., San Diego County, California, Sheriff’s Department (1848/1900)

Competitors firing in the All-Around Championship not only had to hustle between ranges, but also needed the mental ability to adapt from one shooting discipline to another. After the demise of the All-Around Championship at Camp Perry, the DuPont Trophy was awarded to the NRA Service Rifle Champion, beginning in 1951.

https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2018/8/16/all-around-champion-at-national-matches/

https://competitions.nra.org/documents/pdf/compete/nat-trophy/tro-070.pdf

https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2017/8/3/hallmarks-of-heritage-the-nra-trophy-collection

Advertisements

2018 CMP National Matches Rifle

by John M. Buol Jr.

Soldiers of the U.S. Army Reserve Competition Marksmanship Program competed at the Rifle National Matches held by the Civilian Marksmanship Program at Camp Perry July 24-August 8.

NTIT

The National Trophy Infantry Team Match (NTIT) is a National Trophy Rifle Match that was first fired in 1922. The NTIT is sometimes called the “rattle battle” because it emphasizes extremely fast, accurate fire. It is also an exciting competition for spectators to watch.

A team with six shooters and two coaches/team leaders begin with 384 rounds to allocate among team members. Beginning at 600 yards, shooters must distribute their fire so that, if possible, all eight targets receive at least six hits in 50 seconds. Firing continues at 500, then 300, and 200 until all ammunition is expended. E-type silhouettes are used at the longer ranges and F-type “dog” silhouettes are used at the shorter ranges. Hits at 600 yards count four points, at 500 yards, three points, at 300 yards, two points and at 200 yards, one point, plus each team receives a bonus at each yard line equal to the square of the number of targets with six or more hits.

USARCMP took first place and were the 2018 National Trophy Infantry Team Match Champions. This is the first time since 1992 that the U.S. Army Reserve has won this match.

The USARCMP also broke the Celtic Chieftain Trophy record for high Reserve Component Team which stood since 1985.

https://www.facebook.com/kfriend/videos/pcb.10105317538457191/10105317538352401/

https://www.facebook.com/TheCMP.org/videos/2286549798038827/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDgwNjg4NTE5NjozMDYwNjExMjk0OTk0MTQ6MTA6MDoxNTM1Nzg1MTk5Oi02MzM5MDE1MzM2NjQyNzc2ODE5/

Gervasio promotion 4
Chris Gervasio of ARCD and the USARCMP was promoted to Master Sergeant by COL Baer and SFC Arcularius on Rodriquez range during the National Matches.

Hayes 335th
CW3 Hayes of the 335th Signal Command (Theater) and USARCMP during Presentation of Colors prior to shooting the day's match.

Album:

usarcmp perry

Machine Gun Training

by John M. Buol Jr.

EVERY 0331 that goes through AMGC does high angle fire. Slow news day?

– Joe R Heft

A variety of gunnery skills are taught during USMC Advanced Machine Gunner Course but most Army personnel remain oblivious to gunnery with machine guns and are rarely competent with them beyond loading and minimal marksmanship on easy and well-defined point targets.

In fact, most Army personnel have been conducting machine gun qualification incorrectly and failing to achieve published standards. Consider this from the new small arms training manual:

TC 3-20.40
7-119

Table IV-B requires gunners to practice trigger control and requires the firer to fire one five to seven round burst at each specified point target or series of targets in the area target sequences. Gunners are authorized to fire only one five to seven round burst at each paster. [Emphasis added]

The authors explicitly spell this out due to recognizing most Army personnel have failed to perform at this standard but it is NOT a new/different standard. This is not a change to doctrine or a new qualification, this is the way the qual was always supposed to be run. Simple arithmetic of the number of rounds issued during qualification, the number of rounds per burst to be fired, and the number of target areas engaged confirms this. The explicit instruction was forced in due to a large number of Army personnel that don’t math good.

Lack of skill with this equipment is, unfortunately, common.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/funshoot/6192448113/in/album-72157627774486210/
backwards-load-MG

Operation Cold Steel has been less than stellar…

Such “expertise” is rampant:

army handgun pew

Marines practice rarely trained machine gun tactic that could take out Russian vehicles

The Marine Corps is in Bulgaria practicing high-angle fire with a 40 mm grenade launching machine gun known as the Mk-19… The tactic could be beneficial in striking down infantry troops behind walls or protection, or taking out advancing Russian armor and light-skinned vehicles.

With seamless communications and competent forward observers, high-angle Mk-19 fire could also be used to rapidly and easily walk rounds onto an enemy target, according to several machine gunners.

It’s a skill set learned at the Marine Corps’ six-week Advanced Machine Gunner Course.

More:
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/07/18/marines-practice-rarely-trained-machine-gun-tactic-to-prepare-for-a-fight-with-russia/

https://firearmusernetwork.com/soldiers-take-aim-and-miss/

https://firearmusernetwork.com/machine-gun-gunnery-commonwealth-militaries/

https://firearmusernetwork.com/death-of-machine-gun-gunnery/

https://firearmusernetwork.com/comparing-small-arms-training-wwii-today/

https://firearmusernetwork.com/suppressive-fire-cyclic-rates/
https://firearmusernetwork.com/suppressive-fire-myth-fact/

https://firearmusernetwork.com/automatic-rifles-should-the-m249-be-replaced/

https://firearmusernetwork.com/the-emma-gees-by-herbert-mcbride-part-1/