Military active/vet : your funniest memory on a firing range ?
In my current mood of "share your memories…"
We were on a firing range with the FN MiniMi (US designation : M249 SAW).
We were firing individually, so the range master come on my side and tell me "Ready…"
I put my machine gun, with a loaded belt on my shoulder, safety off, sights on the lowest part of the target…
"Go !"
I raise the machine gun, I aim, press the trigger and
clunk.
in my head "clunk ? damn it ! jammed !", so I remove the firearm from my shoulder, I give a good tap on the top cover and my hand come on the bolt handle to rack it…and then, I realize something is missing at the end….
People later told me I said : "For sure, it will not work well"
the barrel was on the ground, the link and the ammo too…
The range master was laughing…I thought he would never stop.
Just a fun memory to share with you.
The barrel mount was just…a little too much used on this one.
lol. I still laugh too.
Posted in military firearms
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
We were firing the M9, Baretta 9 mm, and I was instructing a female that couldn’t hit the 25 meter target.
I went thru the breathing exercises, sight picture, trigger squeeze, and she still couldn’t hit the target.
I took the weapon apart, and everything was fine.
I asked her if she was nervous or frightened, and was told, "No." Alright, I stood behind her and watched as she jerked her head to the side, eyes closed, and popped off 2 or 3 rounds before I could stop her.
I STILL don’t know if I think that’s sad, or funny.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Lol thats funny
Had a cease fire up at Ft Lewis so guys could run down range and count butterflies
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
PVT Johanson was a "risk" and not allowed to fire, so he got the ol’ "sit down / stand up / sit down / stand up" treatment while the rest of us were qualifying.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Similar story-While firing an M-60D from the window on a UH-60 Blackhawk, we were firing on a range that was a small island off the coast of South Korea. The tide was out and there was muck surrounding the island. While changing a box of ammo, I guess the safety wire holding the barrel catch broke and when I charged the weapon, the barrel assembly fell out and fell 200+ feet to land muzzle first into the muck. Embarrasing. At least it was while at the range and not in combat. As far as I know the barrel is still there in the muck.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I was a grunt in the Marines for a few years and me and a friend decided to have some fun on the rifle range. We were at the 500m line (Marines only use iron sights for qualification). Well, when I first enlisted, I couldn’t shoot for crap. After a couple years though, I was a damn good shot. So I started shooting a smiley face on the target from 500m away with iron sights. It wasn’t exactly perfect, but it was enough to really upset the Gunnery Sgt on the range.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
One time while at the qualifying range. I was helping out by loading magazines. My buddy and I noticed many boxes of tracer ammo. So we had this great idea to load up the magazines with tracer ammo. We thought that would be a great help to everyone. Shortly after people started using this ammo several fires broke out down range. We were thinking "oh shit, now we went and did it". That was in Ft. Lewis back in 1985.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I wasnt in the military, but this story comes from my dad who was a Seabee. In Cuba during a dry spell they were brought to the firing range to fire fully automatic M-14′s
Their lieutenant made them fire 18 rounds of tracer each on full auto to see the effects of tracer fire…
they proceeded to burn down the firing range and the louie was transferred…
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Funny know i guess. When I went to basic I shot so bad that I could even zero on the paper at first. They said I most have been using a shot gun.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Funniest huh…..easy. I was running a m249 range and I was in the tower, everything was going smooth and pretty fast. I noticed everyone turned around after the firing order completed the table, they were looking at something at the back of the range in an area where PMI and the bleachers were. I hauled outta the tower to see what was going on…..the CDR and 1Sg was back there too. About 25 people were in a circle as I busted through to the middle. Everyone has a couple bucks in their hands and they were smiling at me. In the center of the circle was one of my PVTs he had a wad of cash in one hand and a cow pattie in the other (it was dried). He looked me square in the eyes and took a bite, laughing as he took in maybe 50 bucks.
What a PVT will do for money…..BTW, he was EXP on the range later that day….
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Well, a SGT I knew was firing the 25mm on the Bradley at night using the thermal sight, so if it glowed they shot it. One target just disappeared. A deer had stumbled into the firing range. I think a hoof was the biggest part they found later.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
When I was at BCT at Ft. Sill, OK, We were qualifing on the range when prarie dogs appeared. We had a good ole country boy in my platoon that proceeded to fire upon them. He got 2 or 3 before the DS beat him on the back of his kevlar with that wood go/no-go sign.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Back in 1968 at Edson Range, Camp Pendleton, CA. I saw a USMC recruit who’d never fired a weapon in his life before pee is pants when he fired a M14 the very first time.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I was a PVT in basic, never shot a M16 in my life, and I was taking FOREVER to zero. I mean, my shot groups were all over the place. The drills were irate. They did everything they could, went over the basics, changed my body armor to a smaller size, and even had me change to my non-dominant eye. Finally, one drill saw the problem. I had the night rear sight aperture selected. I think I shaved a couple years off of my drill sergeant’s lives that day.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Doing nat service way back in ’52 the bren Gun was the ‘gun of the time’
One morning about 6 of us recruits and had to fire off a magazine each.
The corporal told us to fire a couple of single shots, we had never fired any thing in our lives before.
We all stretched oout on our bellies and fired these two shots to confirm our range and direction. which was received by someone pushing ‘a lollipop’ over the target.
to confirm our acuracy.
The corporal in charge then said,’ repeat that exercise’ But aim as far down the handle of the lollipop as u can. After the exercise we couldnt confirm how many human hands holding up the lollipops we hit.