Pancho Villa
06-07-2011, 11:50
I picked up a slim little volume entitled Suggestions for Military Riflemen, by one Townsend Whelen, published 1909, and have been consuming the material inside as fast as I can.
Pre-WWI, the US military spend 2 months out of every 12 doing nothing but marksmanship training. It showed in the accuracy standards and training methodology of the time.
Close Range: 1-300 yards
Mid-range: 300-800 yards
Long range: 800-1200 yards
Everyone was expected to be proficient in close and mid-range fire. If you were especially good at shooting (which took several years of practice to cultivate, normally,) you were given additional instruction and coaching at the long-range courses. You were not an "expert" until you could hit a man-sized target a significant percentage of the time at 1000 yards - with iron sights.
One reproduced target, shot by the author, shows 7/10 shots in a 24" circle at 1000 yards - shot with a Krag, in the prone position, using standard military ammo!
Go look for this little book if you are interested in how marksmanship used to be. I was absolutely stupefied at the level of accuracy expected of your average soldier back then. I am currently in the middle of his advice to officers (Whelen was a Lt in the US army) about how to keep the enlisted's minds on training and not boring them. Funny stuff that would never fly in today's army - letting squads not on the firing line go to their squad room to relax until its their turn, keeping work to a minimum so as not to exhaust or overwhelm recruits, etc. The training methods were surprisingly realistic as well - a "skirmish run" started you at 600 yards, where you had to hit a human silhouette from a standing position, and had you advancing in 50 yard dashes and aiming for the silhouette of a prone figure.
Pre-WWI, the US military spend 2 months out of every 12 doing nothing but marksmanship training. It showed in the accuracy standards and training methodology of the time.
Close Range: 1-300 yards
Mid-range: 300-800 yards
Long range: 800-1200 yards
Everyone was expected to be proficient in close and mid-range fire. If you were especially good at shooting (which took several years of practice to cultivate, normally,) you were given additional instruction and coaching at the long-range courses. You were not an "expert" until you could hit a man-sized target a significant percentage of the time at 1000 yards - with iron sights.
One reproduced target, shot by the author, shows 7/10 shots in a 24" circle at 1000 yards - shot with a Krag, in the prone position, using standard military ammo!
Go look for this little book if you are interested in how marksmanship used to be. I was absolutely stupefied at the level of accuracy expected of your average soldier back then. I am currently in the middle of his advice to officers (Whelen was a Lt in the US army) about how to keep the enlisted's minds on training and not boring them. Funny stuff that would never fly in today's army - letting squads not on the firing line go to their squad room to relax until its their turn, keeping work to a minimum so as not to exhaust or overwhelm recruits, etc. The training methods were surprisingly realistic as well - a "skirmish run" started you at 600 yards, where you had to hit a human silhouette from a standing position, and had you advancing in 50 yard dashes and aiming for the silhouette of a prone figure.