How an ‘unprecedented’ shooting study may shake up Marine marksmanship

Army here. We had pop-up targets ("Ivans") for qualification. From 50-300 meters, in unpredictable patterns, in prone or standing supported. We ZEROED on stationary targets, needing to adjust iron sights after three groups of three shots each in 1 inch circumference. Conflict arose after 9/11 during deployment training. By the third deployment we were getting instructors who came from the battlefield who would start the class by saying, "Forget everything they taught you in BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship)." Shooting at and killing a human being is very different from shooting Ivan on a range where no one is shooting back at you. Firefights are chaos. The goal is to be in the moment and react to the situation by doing what you're trained to do. But if all you're trained to do is shoot at a stationary or pop-up target . . . . We were taught how to hold, load/re-load the weapon; posture, techniques, movement, tactics, how to survive. If every Marine is a rifleman then they need the combat shooting training and as much live fire as possible, IMO.

MAJ Montgomery Granger - We had two hundred, three hundred and five hundred yard lines we qualified from. At 200, we had sitting, kneeling and off hand plus a ten round sixty second rapid fire sitting. At 300 we had prone both for regular fire and rapid fire and 500 was prone only. I don't know if they have changed it since I got out.