Thursday, May 14, 2015

Praxis: The History Of The Designated Marksman’s Rifle. Accuracy versus volume of fire at squad level. "I admire him, but it is necessary that he should die."

Tim Murphy, at Daniel Morgan's order ("I admire him, but it is necessary that he should die.") during the Battle of Bemis Heights (Second Battle of Saratoga), 7 October 1777, shinnies up a tree and makes the single most important rifle shot in world history -- mortally wounding British Brigadier General Simon Fraser. As a result of the victory at Saratoga, the French came into the War of Independence on our side.
Courtesy of Bob Owens.
"Same principles. . . 4X scope. . . detachable. Iron sight backup. . . But the principles are what we're here to talk about . . . you would imbed this in a squad or a certain number of men. It would give them precision that they wouldn't have with their regular rifles. Especially 7.62x39, you're augmenting them with a 7.62x54R rifle. . . And they used these like the Germans ended up using the G43 on the Eastern Front in '44 and '45, where instead of a machine gun nest it would be a DMR and he would support the assault or defend a retreat by placing very precision fire on that enemy. Same exact concept. They took it, improved it, made it a better rifle, same idea."
"The idea is the guy with this rifle, he can be running, and moving, and transitioning with the rest of the unit, but he's capable of making more precise shots. It would kind of be like imbedding a guy with a bazooka or a guy with a BAR into a squad, to give them a little bit of extra capacity in a particular tactical role."
"A force multiplier for a specific purpose."
EXACTLY.
Thanks to the Constitutionally indefensible National Firearms Act of 1934, the armed citizenry is at present denied widespread access to full-auto base of fire weapons. Okay, so if lemons are what we are left, let's make the sweetest lemonade we can. The same goes for supporting ordnance. If we are denied mortars and RPGs, then we can (at present) still employ other rifles to practice the use of rifle grenades as support weapons. We may be restricted to inert practice projectiles at the moment, but if and when (hypothetically speaking) Leviathan -- by its insatiable appetites -- starts the next civil war, changing out a PVC dummy filled with PlayDoh for something more, uh, improvised and exciting, is a matter of a little time, skill and the motivation having nothing else to lose. The skills needed to accurately launch pound-and-a-half projectiles, whether inert or potent, are the same, whether you're aiming at an empty 55 gallon drum at 200 meters in an RG competition or a regime Humvee at 50 meters in real time on the two-way shooting range. This is something that regime minions should consider before going there.
The same goes with the DMR. Accuracy can substitute for volume of fire. If accuracy is what is available to us, then, by all means, let us have accuracy. It is especially useful when the 4GW target is sitting in his security cocoon believing himself, or herself, to be invulnerable. Hypothetically speaking, of course. ;-)
Appleseed, anyone?

5 comments:

brassbryan said...

Appleseed is a good wholesome family activity. Lets not spoil it with this association with insurrection! *wink*

In all seriousness, its a great family weekend, and my son did his first when he was just 7 (my daughter was 11). Don't forget your 10/22 or Marlin LTR and some mags.

Anonymous said...

One thing you learn at an Appleseed is that your targets never lie.

While an Appleseed is open to all shooters including rank beginners, and does draw a cross section of America's people, the majority of those who come are familiar with their equipment and capable of using it effectively, or should be.

But the very first target fired on Saturday morning, the "Redcoat Target" proves otherwise.

https://www.google.com/search?q=appleseed+redcoat+target&biw=1280&bih=887&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=L6FUVeyjN4bjsAT42IHwBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDAQsAQ

Quite simply, this target tests your ability to make hits at various simulated ranges from 100 to 400 yards. Appleseed's first target shows that something like 70% to 80% of America's supposedly experienced shooters can't reliably make hits out past 100 yards.

Imagine for a moment the OPFOR's need to secure a safe perimeter at a certain distance from a valued target. Your job is to make that safe perimeter a killing zone. If they only need to secure the first 200 yards it requires a certain number of defenders. And if you can only make noise and waste ammo at 200 yards, they're good with that 200 yard perimeter. But suppose you can hit at 200. Now figure the number of men they need. As your skills improve, the number of people they need expands in proportion to the circumference of that perimeter.

Appleseed will show you what you need to know to make hits on a man sized target at 500 yards, the rifleman's quarter mile, at a pace of one aimed shot every 3 seconds, the rifleman's cadence.

Imagine OPFOR's headache if you can be counted on to make 20 hits at 500 yards in under 60 seconds, switch positions, change mags, and hit them with another 20 rounds.

Those who can make hits are Riflemen. The rest of us are cooks. America has plenty of cooks. She desperately needs more Riflemen.

If you haven't been to an Appleseed yet, what the "duck" are you waiting for?

Anonymous said...

Most current day shooters running an AR have some sort of optic. Be it an aim poimt, eotech or trijicon. For the non magnified ones, they upgraded from iron sights for CQB.

Looking at modern forces where most are running an ACOG and so too are a lot of civies, they already have 3-4x magnification and hitting out to 300 should be no problem.

For a designated markmen/rifleman i think you would be looking at an optic more around 6 power for those tighter shots requiring a bit more accuracy. Going to a 3x9 will make the rifle less useful in CQB. But many of the 1-6 scopes bridge the gap.

Shooting practicle rifle courses is a good way to test and hone your skills. We see targets from 7 yards out to 450. So you move from stage to stage and and have to transition from CQB to targets from100 on out.

Good training, good practise and you get to know your rifle and your capabilities

Allen said...

"changing out a PVC dummy filled with PlayDoh for something more, uh, improvised and exciting, is a matter of a little time, skill and the motivation having nothing else to lose"

I've been researching WW2 british "home guard" weapons (northover projector, holman projector, blacker bombard, ect) all are simple enough to build once the shooting starts, and if you make them right the ammunition could be various drink bottles (beer, soda, ect) filled with whatever nasty you cancome up with.

Anonymous said...

4x optics work great out to 500 yards. They keep one from fussing the shot and missing. Appleseed teaches this.

Appleseed has a goal of 4 MOA. This equates to head shots at 250 yards, and torso shots out to the Rifleman's Quarter Mile (440 yards precisely, but anywhere from 400 to 500 yards, in practice.) Appleseed also has Known Distance and Unknown Distance clinics available, too! You learn to passively range using your front post with iron sights, or scope, with better than 5% accuracy.

Appleseed is for everyone, including even "advanced" shooters. It is not just for kids!