Four civilians, Bill Balda, Steve Marnix, Terry Park and I met with two Army Marksmanship Unit trainers to assist in training based on that provided to the Army's Squad Designated Marksmen.  Although this is not a true Squad Designated Marksman class the forty plus soldiers in attendance received this same training contained in Field Manual 3-21.8.

What made this class a little different was a classroom full of soldiers with newly acquired M14 rifles with a number of differences. 

If you've ever attended one of the AMU Small Arms Firing Schools, you will have seen part of the classroom presentation before.  There's an added portion dealing with optics because these M14 rifles are equipped with Leupold scopes, but one look at the pictures shows that's not the major difference with these rifles.  Each one is a true M14 rifle fitted into a Sage International, LTD., Enhanced Battle Rifle Aluminum Chassis Stock System.  While I'm not totally sold on this modification yet, it does provide a solid mount for the scope and includes a rest for the shooter's face that doesn't require the use of duct tape and packing material.

After covering the morning's portion of the classroom training, the rifles were laser bore sighted and scopes were tightened down.  A trip to a firing range followed where rifles were sighted in at 100 yards from the prone position.  A later classroom training session covered mil dot ranging, moving target leads and more detail on external ballistics.

By Kent Stonecipher-Oklahoma City Firearms Examiner