Section 51.—Range Practices.
1. When recruits have shown clearly that they have acquired a satisfactory standard of skill in all branches of preliminary training, they will commence range practices. Range practices merely lay the foundation of musketry in its elementary stages. They are only a means to an end—namely, to prepare soldiers for field practices, by which they are trained to fire under conditions approximating as closely as possible to those of service.
2. Qualifying Practices.—The range practices for the Regular Army and Special Reserve begin with qualifying practices, for which standards are prescribed. If these standards are not attained, it is a sign that the preliminary training has failed in its object. After passing standard tests in miniature range practice, and firing on the 30 yards range, every man should begin his practice on the open range confident in his own powers, and determined to prove his ability to hit.
3. Preliminary Training and Range Practices.—Instructional range practices need not be continuous. Intervals of time between the exercises are often beneficial, especially to nervous men; but in any case, time should be found to continue the exercises of preliminary training on days allotted to range practices, in order that there may be no separation between theory and practice.
4. Scope of Range Practices.—(i) In range practices the soldier should attain a high standard of skill in shooting at known distances under easy conditions and in various positions, at large vertical targets easy to see, and furnished with scoring or approximation rings, which enable the error in shooting to be expressed in figures convenient for comparative purposes.
(ii) He will confirm in practice the lessons learned in preliminary training, and be thoroughly acquainted with the peculiarities of his rifle. He will fire in the open and from behind cover in deliberate and rapid practices, and will learn the rate of fire which, in his own case, best combines volume with accuracy. In snapshooting he will realize the necessity for rapid alignment of sights, and the value of time in taking advantage of targets exposed under service conditions.
5. Hints to Instructors—(i) False Standards.—Instructors must guard against the danger of men setting up false standards of musketry based on the results of their shooting in range practices. Lectures based on the instruction laid down in Sec. II. may be given to recruits at the commencement of or during range practices, so that they clearly understand that the assurance of effect in battle through individual fire is limited to distances within close range, and that collective fire is necessary for fire effect beyond close range.
(ii) Deliberate Practices.—Instructors must bear in mind that deliberate practice at bull’s-eye targets tends to inculcate a slow method of shooting, as minute attention to changes of wind and light, and fine adjustments of the backsight based on shot-by-shot marking, are necessary to produce the best results under such conditions. Therefore, directly recruits have attained a satisfactory degree of skill at deliberate practices, they must commence snapshooting and rapid firing. Instructors must make it clear to soldiers that high scores in range practices under easy conditions and shot-by-shot marking bear no relation whatever to the results to be expected from their skill when firing under service conditions even in peace time.
(iii) Range Practices and Service Conditions.—In battle at close range fire effect depends on snapshooting and rapid firing under conditions in which the effect of wind and light may usually be disregarded; alteration of sights is seldom possible, and the result of fire is frequently impossible to ascertain by observation. Beyond close range in battle, accurate ranging, allowance for deflection due to wind, and observation of fire, which are all necessary for accurate individual firing, are beyond the powers of unassisted individuals, even when targets are easy to discern and recognize with the naked eye, which is not ordinarily the case.
(iv) As the conditions of range practices differ in all these important respects from those of service, it is clear that another and extremely important stage of training, for which range practices are only a preparation, must be carried out before the soldier can be considered fit to perform his duties in the firing-line efficiently. This further stage of training is known as “field practices.”