Today we went to a different shooting range to practice for the qualification. Of course, this is not required for a handful of us, so there is very little pressure.
I started off having to load ammo. I think we ended up loading somewhere near 16000 rounds of 5.56mm. Needless to say, that took a couple hours. But eventually, they called us up as the last group.
I ended up shooting 36/40 targets on my first round. That was pretty good, and qualifies as Expert. Of course, my subsequent rounds went downhill from there, unfortunately. The way it works is that there are 2 targets at 50 meters, one left and one right, and targets at 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 meters. The targets pop up (seeming to be random at first). The hard part is that the 50m targets only pop up for 4 seconds, 5 seconds for 100m, 6 seconds for 150m, etc. And sometimes two targets pop up at the same time. So it's actually challenging. I was getting hot and sweaty, and sweat was dripping into my eyes after the first round. So hopefully tomorrow will be cool, weather wise.
We had MREs for lunch, which is always exciting. Today I had Meatballs in Marinara Sauce. Not great, but not terrible at all. I even got a Cinnamon Scone as my dessert too!
After my group was done shooting, there was some down time. The Army calls free time "white space." Regardless of what you call it, it allowed for a nap! Tomorrow is our actual qualification shoot, so hopefully I control my nerves. Now I think I will rest...
I started off having to load ammo. I think we ended up loading somewhere near 16000 rounds of 5.56mm. Needless to say, that took a couple hours. But eventually, they called us up as the last group.
I ended up shooting 36/40 targets on my first round. That was pretty good, and qualifies as Expert. Of course, my subsequent rounds went downhill from there, unfortunately. The way it works is that there are 2 targets at 50 meters, one left and one right, and targets at 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 meters. The targets pop up (seeming to be random at first). The hard part is that the 50m targets only pop up for 4 seconds, 5 seconds for 100m, 6 seconds for 150m, etc. And sometimes two targets pop up at the same time. So it's actually challenging. I was getting hot and sweaty, and sweat was dripping into my eyes after the first round. So hopefully tomorrow will be cool, weather wise.
We had MREs for lunch, which is always exciting. Today I had Meatballs in Marinara Sauce. Not great, but not terrible at all. I even got a Cinnamon Scone as my dessert too!
After my group was done shooting, there was some down time. The Army calls free time "white space." Regardless of what you call it, it allowed for a nap! Tomorrow is our actual qualification shoot, so hopefully I control my nerves. Now I think I will rest...
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