Posted on Aug 16, 2021
CPL(P) Team Leader
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My unit attended a rifle qualification range, and the popup targets weren't registering hits properly. I was not the only Soldier affected by it. I train a lot in my off-time, participate in shooting competitions, and train with others thousands of rounds on the AR platform every year. I would consider myself to be quite proficient at everything the M4/AR platform.

In my previous 5 years of the Army, I have never qualified with anything but a 39 or 40/40. This last time I went, I grouped and zeroed just fine, same as every other time. We went to do the qualification, which I shot 4 iterations of, never qualifying higher than a 27/40. One time I qualified 17/40!

My training room just updated my range score from a 39/40 to a 27/40.
I just dropped from 511 points to 421, basically blowing my chance of getting promoted to SGT out of the water in my particular MOS (25S, which is quite competitive).

So this stands to question, how do I go about contesting the range score? They can look at empirical data (my, and others previous range qualification cards) to see that we have never shot this poorly before, but what other way can I further enhance my argument?

I was told by one of the Sergeants in my unit that the range control told our acting 1SG that the range was messed up, but we shot and used the scores anyways. Not sure if that would help at all since I did not hear the conversation take place, but stands to reason it did if everyone shot so poorly.
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Responses: 7
CSM William Everroad
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CPL(P) (Join to see) The time to "contest" the score was at the range with the range NCOIC/OIC as suggested by SGM Bill Frazer. After the fact, there is almost no way to fix the issue [change the score] other than for the Commander to invalidate the qualification. Talk to your 1SG for that one, but my guess is they won't be swayed by your arguments if the drop in scores was intermittent regardless of how many E4 mafia you get to sign on.

If you are that concerned with your sequence number, boost your points as LTC John Mohor suggested. Retake the PT test, find another unit to go qualify with, max your education.

It is not the situation in which we find ourselves that dictates character, its what we do to move forward. I am not suggesting doing nothing about the bad qualification, but dedicating all of your resources to fighting a bad qualification score seems like you have all your eggs in one basket.
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LTC John Mohor
LTC John Mohor
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CPL Rohloff great feedback from CSM William Everroad and the rest. Now do your best Soldier!
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SGM Bill Frazer
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If you were going to contest it, should have 1st been done on the Range to the OIC/NCOIC- after the fact, its going to be hard.
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CPL(P) Team Leader
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SGM, I brought it up to the training NCO on the day of, but apparently that was not enough on my part.
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SGM Bill Frazer
SGM Bill Frazer
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CPL(P) (Join to see) - Ouch Bro, maybe stuck now
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CPT Lawrence Cable
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I have been on Ranges where we shut down a lane because it it became obvious that it wasn't scoring correctly, and we re shot the soldiers that were on it. Never tried or heard of contesting the entire range.
Was it just the lane you were shooting? If that is the case, it should be obvious from the score cards that there was a screw up.
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CPL(P) Team Leader
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It was multiple lanes, if not all of them. We ran the range for 2 days and the highest score was a 31 for approximately 50 soldiers.
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