RIFLE TRAINING AND INSTRUCTION

(Based on Small-Arms Firing Manual)

[1344]. Object of system of instruction. The object of the system of rifle training and instruction employed in our Army is two-fold:

  1. To make of INDIVIDUALS, shots who in battle will make hits instead of misses.
  2. To make of ORGANIZATIONS, pliable, manageable MACHINES, capable of delivering in battle a volume of EFFECTIVE fire.

[1345]. To make of INDIVIDUALS shots who in battle will make hits instead of misses. This is accomplished by INDIVIDUAL training and instruction whereby the skill of the soldier as a rifleman is so developed as to be up to the capabilities of his rifle, which is probably the best and most accurate rifle in the world,—that is to say—

Effort is made to so develop the shooting skill of the soldier that he will be able to make his rifle do the things that it is capable of doing.

To accomplish this end the soldier is put through a course of individual instruction that divides itself into three main phases or stages, viz:—

  1. Preliminary drills. By means of preliminary drills in the form of sighting drills; position and aiming drills; and deflection and correction elevation drills, he is taught the theoretical, fundamental principles of shooting.
  2. Gallery practice. Having been taught the theoretical, fundamental principles of shooting by means of the preliminary drills mentioned in the proceeding paragraph, the soldier is then shown how to apply them in a simple, elementary way by being put through a course of gallery practice with the .22 Cal. Gallery Practice Rifle, using reduced charges. This practice may be called the transitory phase or period of individual instruction, during which The soldier passes from his acquisition of the theoretical, fundamental principles of shooting to their application to actual firing, on the target range, with the regulation Army rifle.
  3. Range practice. Having gone through the course in gallery practice, the soldier then fires on the target range, applying and putting into practice, with the regulation Army rifle; the theoretical principles of shooting taught him during the preliminary drills, and in the application and practice of which he was also instructed during the gallery practice.

[1346]. Other Instruction. While the above phases embody the principal subjects in which a soldier is trained and instructed in developing his skill in shooting, he is also instructed in other matters that are necessary to round out and complete his skill in marksmanship,—for example, the care of the rifle, estimating distances, the effect of light, wind, and temperature, etc.