Shooting other than intended targets

[JKSNIPER]

I was assistant teaching a Basic sniper course a couple years ago up in the New England area .

The students had to move from a starting location to the firing line, transitioning from upright walking to eventually a sniper crawl where they would crest the firing line and engage their target using a "Hawkins" position.

Hawkins position is extremely low to the ground and very stable but not as easy to assume and fire from as one would think.

Anyway the students move out (there was a time limit to this exercise) and they're transitioning to crawling on all 4 paws, to high crawl, to low crawl and then sniper crawl.

( Now guys.....the students had been told to be conscious of scope to muzzle difference and to fire only when they were sure they were good to go.....however these are basic students we're talking about. Also more importantly some of them had left their gear up near their original firing position for the days shooting. Even AFTER being advised to move it off line to avoid any problems.....hee hee)

I'm watching a couple guys moving into position when I see one looking like he was a little to far back to clear the berm. I asked him if he had checked his muzzle clearence and he replied in the affirmative and then he fired.

A shooting mat was thrown up into the air and it came down almost in the same position it was before it encountered a .308 round.

The shooter, being in recoil, did not see clearly what had happened.

I was standing there with my mouth open catching flies and thinking "Holy Shite!" when he fired a second time and this time he killed that commie mat deader than dead.

THis time more people than I had seen it ( as evidenced by the laughter) and a cease fire was called.

We moved forward and the poor guy whose mat it was is standing there looking pissed but the only person to be pissed at was himself.

We all had a pretty good laugh about it. The first round had kind of creased it but the second one blew it up good.

The funny thing was after the first round the shooter had asked "I can't see where I'm hitting...can you tell?"

"Oh yeah I can Corporal Vanderbilt and its a LOT closer than you think."

No rounds hit the target and the shooter and the owner of the mat both learned something that day.

Good times.

JK