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Old January 19, 2014, 10:57 PM   #1
tahunua001
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anyone got the USMC qual battery?

hello all,
a while back I posted up the course of fire for the navy pistol and rifle qualification batteries and they were met with quite a bit of enthusiasm by several members so I figured I'd mix things up and see about trying to track down the marine M9 qualification course of fire and targets.
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Old January 20, 2014, 12:08 AM   #2
ShaulWolf
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The PDF from the link is the order for the Marine Corps Marksmanship Program. if you go to page 91 of the PDF you'll find the pistol qualification course of fire. The pistol qual is paragraph c, and is broken down by distance, target type, time limit (par time), round count, drill type, and double action or single action. The targets used are standard bullseye targets for 25 yards (if I recall).

MCO 3574 2K

The entire qual is fired from the low ready.

The slow fire drill is very simple and gives ample time to fire all rounds comfortably. All rounds fired in single action only.

The quick fire drill gives (1) second to engage the target. Upon the tower command, or the targets turning to face you, engage with one round in double action only.

The quick reaction drill is similar, but with (2) rounds. Double action on the first shot, single action on the follow up.

The sustained fire drill requires (3) rounds fired from one mag, a mandatory reload, and another (3) rounds from the fresh mag.

All in all it's simple and basic, and just tests fundamental skills with speed and accuracy. If you've shot IDPA, USPSA, or IPSC you should do fine and find yourself needing to slow down to take advantage of the time given.

Last edited by ShaulWolf; January 20, 2014 at 12:13 AM.
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Old January 20, 2014, 01:47 AM   #3
tahunua001
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I have not competed in any of those groups. the only thing nearby is a USPSA club and they share a range with the local PDs and only fire 2 days during the middle of the week and their membership rates are completely absurd. however I was in the navy and like to put myself through a mock navy qual quite often so I'm no stranger to timed courses and not rushing a shot. interesting that everything is from low ready, we always had to holster after every battery.


the marine course actually looks a lot easier on paper since the navy qual is all rapid fire with lots of mag changes and DA shots... they just shoot at shorter range to compensate. well I have some B16 targets on the way so I should be able to put this together shortly. my local firing range has a lot of appleseed, John C Garand, and cowboy action shoots but nothing in the way of action pistol so my plan is to see if there would be a way of establishing a little friendly competition for those of us that like to shoot service pistols.
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Old January 20, 2014, 02:08 AM   #4
ShaulWolf
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The basic qualification course of fire is pretty simple for pistol, and more focus is put on rifle quals. It's also well agreed by most shooters that the basic pistol quals is pretty easy, and only trains on basic fundamentals. Every Marine is a rifleman after all. Paragraph d offers a few more challenges with different shooting positions and drawing from a holster. That's usually done as per deployment training, or if OIC can convince the S-4 to do something more in depth with pistol training, though they're more willing to give leeway with rifle training.

I got my OpsO to green light going more in depth and breaking out the shotguns, but couldn't convince him to let me practice movement to contact like Table 2 with rifle quals. Would've been fantastic training, but too many brand new shooters.
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Old January 20, 2014, 02:37 PM   #5
tahunua001
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navy bootcamp is kindof wonky in their interpretation of fundamentals. they do M9 and m500 shotgun where you shoot from the hip... I actually had to pay to go over to camp allen and qualify with the M4 after I got to my permanent command. handgun skills are good enough in my book for the majority of us that are never issued a firearm, but for those of us that go to security and have a rating/MOS that requires issueance of shotgun and rifle the basic shotgun qual from bootcamp is worthless and they still have to go through M16 training later on. one would think it would be a lot easier to teach how to actually fire a shotgun and spend an extra 2 days training in the basics of the M16 rather than wasting manhours on training after a sailor has left a training command.
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Old January 20, 2014, 03:57 PM   #6
ShaulWolf
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I went to the dark side and did OCS, so I can't speak for the enlisted side of things. We didn't do any live fire training at OCS, but we spent quite a BT of time going over rifle and pistol training during The Basic School. There was a couple weeks of classes, marching to the range, snapping in, then taking turns doing a round robin with pulling targets, Table 1 for rifle, and pistol training. When we did rifle quals we did Tables 1 and 2 and the composite score is what qualified you. There was also a night live fire and unknown distance range with pop up targets that had to be engaged behind cover. The pistol quals was still pretty basic since it's a secondary weapon, and much more emphasis was placed on the M16A4. We also went over the M249, M203, and crew served weapons pretty well in depth. That was almost four years ago and I can still remember the manual of arms for it all. I'd need a refresher before doing stuff like disassembling and reassembling an M240 or M2 though...

We didn't really ever touch on shotguns, and to my knowledge there is no actual Marine Corps order on a shotgun qual. I just made the shotgun live fire a familiarization live fire when I was the OIC for that range. The S-4 and XO wouldn't let me use the course of fire I had originally planned because they didn't want PFCs who have never touched a pistol or shotgun before doing more than stationary drills. They would have been less concerned if I was planning the range for the MP platoon that's part of our squadron though.
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Old January 21, 2014, 07:18 PM   #7
Jeff22
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USMC pistol qual course has changed recently

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjf1GyCjinU

Check out this link to you tube. It shows a Marine demonstrating the new pistol qualification course.

Myself, I have a big file of firearms qualification courses used by the various branches of the military, and also from various police departments. I like to see what different agencies use for qual courses, and I use many of them in my regular practice routine.

Many guys don't know HOW to practice to develop or test basic marksmanship skills. They just go to the range and shoot. Shooting on a good qualification course can help you measure your own skills and identify the things you need to work on. As your skills improve, you can run tighter time limits or a use a smaller target or shoot at greater distances to make it more challenging.
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