Range Day

Today was Range Day. For most of the Battalion, the soldiers are assigned a weapon that is theirs for the duration of their time with the unit. For those who are PROFIS, we are assigned a weapon out of the available supply. The people organic to the unit have already zeroed and qualified with their weapon, so today was a day to just shoot 20 rounds and verify that there is no major malfunction with their rifle. For me, and the other providers, we are new to the unit and to our rifle so we have to Zero. Zeroing is a process of taking the rifle, in my case the M-16, from a mechanical zero with its iron sights and adjusting the sights to meet your personal needs. When you meet these needs by getting 3 rounds (bullets) into a circle about the size of a silver dollar from 50 meters, you are considered zeroed and will, with proper shooting technique, be consistent with your shots. The military uses human silhouettes on a grid system that allows you to figure out how many clicks on the rear and fore sights you need to adjust. The number of clicks is relatively consistent from rifle to rifle and is called your battle sight zero. Mine is 9 up on the front and 9 to the left. In the pictures you can see how the 1st group is a familiarization round, the 2nd is to determine if you were just a bad shot or showing some consistency. After the second series of 3 shots, the triangulation is calculated on the grid to determine the adjustments. You can follow from the picture how my adjustments worked. The standard is to zero in 18 rounds or less (6 sets of 3). Since we were issued 20 rounds, I had 5 rounds left and tried a shot grouping to see how the zeroing went. I am happy with the results, and I believe that my rifle will do its job if needed. My hope is that after cleaning it today, I will only have to wipe the sand off of it.
Other than that, things have been slow. We are pretty much done with all our training and only have a baseline cognitive assessment to take which will be used to compare our abilities if we are suspected of a mild Traumatic Brain Injury (concussion, closed head injury caused by a blast, etc) – mTBI. The rest of the time is spent napping, trying to call home with the phone systems actually work, which they have not been, and planning for the next meal. Well it’s getting late and I have another day with nothing in it to get excited about. At least we got to fire our weapons today. I’ll write again soon. Take care.

443 days.