Air Force rifle qualification

bovw

bovw

US Veteran
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Messages
433
Reaction score
270
Location
VA
I need to settle and argument and can not find the answer online. Can one of you Air Force types tell me the distances of current known distance qualification. My former AF him and my wife wife are having an argument about the qualities of the services. Grant you, she is biased with myself and our oldest being Marines.

Thank you in advance Gentlemen.
 
Register to hide this ad
I can only tell you about my Army experience. We qualified with M14s. Sighted in at 25 meters and slowly worked our way to 300 meters. 300 meters was a cinch with the m14. But then on qualification day the #$&^%@(* upped us to 400 meters without warning. I still qualified expert. :p
But I gotta tell ya, nightfire is one of the most difficult things I've EVER tried.
 
jlrhiner said:
I thought the Air Force just needed to know it was a rifle.:p
Click to expand...
That's what I thought, but bil is trying to argue that Air Force and Marine qualification is the same. It must be super secret, I can't find AF distances anywhere online.
 
I was a small arms instructor (CATM) in the USAF for 20 years, 1983-2003. During that time we almost always used a reduced silhouette target at 25 yds for routine qualification, same version the Army used at the time I believe. Not sure what they use now.
 
USAF Basic training 1955 Sampson AFB, Geneva, NY was 1000" as I remember (27.8Yd) with US M-1 Carbine. Generally issued a carbine for guard duty and grease gun for MayDay alerts at Itazuki AFB, ***oka, Japan1955-58
 
In 1966 we had to qualify with a worn out misfiring, failure to eject M16 at 100 yards. In Air police training 100 yds with an M16, 25 yards with the pistol.
 
I've been told from reliable sources that qualification in the USAF meant how many strokes it took to get over the water hazard on the base's course. That's what I heard anyway.
 
Boy, you guys are sure rough on us Air Force types.:D

I qualified expert with the M16, back then it was called the AR15, in 65 I believe, but I'm not sure at which yardage, although I know it was at least 100 yards.
 
bonjorno2 said:
New qualification depends on Job. Regardless of the job qualification targets are at 75m 150m and 300m. They shoot a min of 196 rounds. I am a current instructor for them.
Click to expand...

Thank you much.
 
bgrafsr said:
Boy, you guys are sure rough on us Air Force types.:D
Click to expand...

WARNING: slight thread drift.......

When I went to MOS school at Aberdeen Maryland, the branches all had separate barracks. I was lucky, and only had to share the room with two other guys. Some rooms had up to 8 people. We had two small public bathrooms, and one large public bathroom, for the entire floor. We had a rec room on the first floor that had the only TV in the entire barracks of 150+ Marines.

One night I was selected for fire watch, which included walking the air force barracks. They slept two to a room, private bathrooms, carpet on the floor, a TV in every room, and a rec room on every floor. Those air force guys had it nice..... a little too nice.

bgrafsr said:
I qualified expert with the M16, back then it was called the AR15, in 65 I believe, but I'm not sure at which yardage, although I know it was at least 100 yards.
Click to expand...

100 yards... must have been tough... lol
 
gunblade said:
I was a small arms instructor (CATM) in the USAF for 20 years, 1983-2003. During that time we almost always used a reduced silhouette target at 25 yds for routine qualification, same version the Army used at the time I believe. Not sure what they use now.
Click to expand...

This is what we used until the mid 00's. After that time, it depended on where you were at. Some bases use a video game style system. (imagine Duck Hunt with an m-16)

Here's an article about what was/is to take place to qualify now (from 2011, and no specific distances mentioned, though I'm assuming they haven't changed)

Air Force introduces new rifle course | Air Force Times | airforcetimes.com
 
I don't know about other branches of the service but when I went through Naval Training Center in San Diego in early 1967 we went to the range for one day. We shot the M1 Garand, M1 carbine, !903 A3 and the 1911. We watched an instructor shoot a Thompson. Viet Nam was going on and all the good stuff was over there. Several months later I was stationed on the U.S.S. Springfield and the Marines on board let me shoot M14's, 1911's (one was a Singer) and Winchester 97 shotguns off the fantail (first time I had ever seen a solid brass shotgun shell) We shot glass gallon jugs. They were thrown off the bow and we shot them as we cruised past them. If I had it to do over again I would have been a gunners mate instead of a radarman.
 
With the Air Force should'nt it be ranges like
10,000 feet, 20,000 feet, 30,000 feet etc....?
Shooting straight down of course.

Chuck
 
My Dad was RAF and unusually he was taught to shoot a Lee Enfield No.4 out to 300 yards. The reason was that his first station was so small it did not have a 25 yard range with .22s. He qualified marksman (top in the RAF system) and was also a dead shot with a Bren gun.

Another RAF guy told me he qualified marksman with a No.4 in the 1960s and not long afterwards they were withdrawn and he had to re-qualify with a FAL. He, me and many others agree that the FAL sights blow chunks compared with a No.4, which might explain why he could not keep his shots in the same county and lost his marksman rating.
 
Gosh, with all the bombs they have who needs a rifle!! Anyway I will ask one of my "zoomy" friends and report back. Oh, even here in Camp Cupcake, (Bagram) Afghanistan, the Air Force living quarters are called "dorms" and they are nice, but not rocket proof!!
 
Badquaker said:
WARNING: slight thread drift.......

When I went to MOS school at Aberdeen Maryland, the branches all had separate barracks. I was lucky, and only had to share the room with two other guys. Some rooms had up to 8 people. We had two small public bathrooms, and one large public bathroom, for the entire floor. We had a rec room on the first floor that had the only TV in the entire barracks of 150+ Marines.

One night I was selected for fire watch, which included walking the air force barracks. They slept two to a room, private bathrooms, carpet on the floor, a TV in every room, and a rec room on every floor. Those air force guys had it nice..... a little too nice.



100 yards... must have been tough... lol
Click to expand...

My son went to Airframe school in Pensacola, he told me that Air Force guys used to get hazardous duty pay if they shared a barracks with Marines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Dead Air suppressors
Replies
2
Views
305
03hemi
03hemi
THE PILGRIM
Evans Rifle
Replies
4
Views
528
Ivan the Butcher
I
Glenn R. McMannly
My Finest Rifle
Replies
19
Views
1K
6string
6string
BigBoy99
Pellet Air Rifle Question
Replies
12
Views
704
max503
max503
TJm15.38
My First "Black Rifle"
2
Replies
23
Views
809
zeke
Z

Latest posts

Back
Top