Chapter 14: The Fundamentals of Marksmanship

“Learn to take care of your weapon, and it will take care of you.”

Many people wonder what its like to shoot an M16.  Well, to tell you the truth, it’s a peashooter.  As long as you’re holding it properly, there is very little recoil.  Let’s get down to the basics.

You can remember the four fundamentals of marksmanship by a simple acronym: STABS.

1)Steady Position – Get in a comfortable position.  You will be laying in that position for a while with practically no movement, so you need to be comfortable.

2)Aiming – Anytime you look down the sight of an M16, you have to focus your eyes on the front sight aperture.  You form a “sight picture”, basically it looks something like this:

3)Breathing – You don’t hold your breath while you shoot, because the first thing you lose with a lack of oxygen is your eyesight.  You fire your weapon during the natural pause between your exhale and your inhale.  Your sight picture should naturally rise and fall with your breathing.

4)Trigger Squeeze – Be gentle on the trigger when you’re pulling it.  Trying to squeeze the trigger too hard will result in the weapon shaking before the bullet is fired, leading to inaccuracy and inconsistency.

I’ll finish this later , but this is a good start if you want to become a  superior marksman.