BRM

Monday morning we headed out to the field for a week. The main area of concentration was BRM (basic rifle marksmenship). In the past, I have only fired an M16:



And last week we used the M4.


The M4 is the new weapon that is being introduced to the army. I like it a lot better than the M16 because the butt stock (the back end of the weapon) is collapsible so for people like me with short arms, it makes the weapon more comfy to shoot. Other than that, they are basically the same to shoot.

I also got to use a CCO (close combat optic):

A CCO is basically a laser scope. Normally you qualify with iron sites which looks like this:


I liked firing with the CCO a lot better.

This is what our BRM schedule looked like:

Monday: weapon familiarization and EST (engagement skills trainer). The EST is a weapons simulator. Basically it's a giant video game. The technology used for it is extreamly accurate and the weapons used are replicas of the M16 and M4. They are hooked up to an air compressor so that you get the 'kick' from firing the weapon.

Tuesday: Group and Zero. In order to be accurate when qualifying, we have to group and zero our weapons first. Each round of grouping and zeroing you fire 3 rounds and fire from 25 meters away. The goal while grouping is to get 3 rounds in a 4 cm circle. Once grouped, the weapon is adjusted so your shot groups are in the center of the target. In order to zero, two consecutive shot groups (six rounds) need to be in the black circle (center mass of the target). Here is what the target looks like:



Wednesday: Verify Zero with CCO and set up Iron Sites Zero.

Friday: Qualifying. For each round of qualifying you are given 40 rounds.

20 rounds are shot in the prone supported (lying on your stomach with your rifle supported by sandbags-gives you more support):

10 rounds are shot in the prone unsupported:

10 rounds in the kneeling position:


While shooting, targets pop up at distances ranging from 50 meters to 300 meters and you are given 5-10 seconds for each target. A couple of times, two targets will pop up at the same time. In order to qualify you need to shot 23 out of 40. Only about 30% of our class qualified the first time they shot. I shot a 25...not great but at least I qual'ed the first time!