One thing that's necessary when conducting training is to be flexible.  Day five began with a new group of students and a new classroom location.  Finding the new building and classroom wasn't too hard but we and the students arrived to find the door locked.  Calls were made to get someone with a key.

In order to save as much time as possible the Army Marksmanship Unit instructors began by properly fitting the scopes to the rifles on the lawn outside the building.  These are Leupold Mark 4 3.5-10x40mm LR/T scopes with 1" clicks for elevation and .5" clicks for windage.  The soldiers then moved to one of the Civilian Marksmanship Program volunteers to have the gas system checked for tightness.  A few were found to be loose and were properly adjusted with an M14 combination tool.  Students were shown how to check that the gas piston was moving freely by locking the bolt to the rear and elevating and depressing the muzzle while listening for movement.  A couple were found to be improperly assembled and those problems were resolved.

By the time these steps were completed a key for the classroom had arrived.  After moving inside the AMU instructors began what would normally be a power point presentation on a dry erase board because no projector was present.  The instructors knew their material well and did a great job until a projector arrived and then they quickly transitioned to it.

The classroom presentation mimicked what was presented on day one.  Around noon a highly optimistic trip was taken to the firing range which was found to be in a cease fire condition.  A slight breeze had built up during the morning.  While trying to get a picture of my wind meter without being bowled over, I'm sure I saw 47 MPH at one point.  The trip at least set up everything with those in charge of the range for an early start the next morning. 

So, we return to the classroom where scope mounts were tightened with a torque wrench and while the AMU instructors laser bore sighted each rifle the CMP volunteers showed the students how to properly lubricate them.  Last week's class began zeroing with dry rifles and had a few functioning problems.  That should be avoided this time.

Finally, the soldiers were shown proper firing positions for prone, kneeling and standing while natural point of aim was discussed.

This was a great save for what could have been a lost training day.

By Kent Stonecipher-Oklahoma City Firearms Examiner