Edited pluck from another board:
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<span style="font-weight: bold">USASOC Sniper Comp</span>
Well guys, the USASOC sniper Comp is now history. It finished up with the Day Scrambler event and “Back to Basics Shoot”. All had fun, most enjoyed, some were a bit frustrated, all learned that the basics are important!
Day one, 6 Dec consisted of the cold Bore shoot, single shot by both team members at a target size of their choice: 3/4 MOA; 1 1/4 moa; or 2 MOA at 200 meters. Most forgot the basics of dry firing and settling in before the first shot and paid the price. After that event the competitors were split into two groups with half going to the Field Shoot and half to the low percentage shoot.
Field shoot had five targets on a side at ranges from 550 to 800 meters. Targets were 12 inch gongs. The teams would move to one side and the sniper would shoot five targets in 5 minutes, 30 seconds, and then switch sides, targets, and shooter/observer. They then shoot the five targets on that side in 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Here the basics were important as well as sequence.
The other event was the low percentage shoot in which the snipers had to locate and hit designated threat targets mixed in with civilians. The targets were heads only with about 1/4 to 1/2 of the head covered. Ranges were from 80 meters to about 370 meters. The sniper teams had to move into a room in a building, establish their site, and engage the targets in 8 minutes. Finally the tired puppies were sent out to the Night Field Shoot which was ran similar to the day field shoot except during the day they could not use lasers or other aids -- only mil -- during the night they could mil, use lasers illuminators, etc to assist in the target hits. Thus ended the first day of competition.
Day two started off with One Shot in which the sniper team engaged two targets, one at 700 meters (a 12 inch gong), and the other at 650 meters (a square 14 inch gong). The sniper with bolt gun engaged the 12 inch with a single shot and then switched over to the observer with a gas gun to engage the square gong. They could use laser range finders, mil dot, whatever was necessary to hit the target with that one shot. They had 1 minute each to engage.
After this they again split and went to the Loophole shoot and the Mongolian Horde shoot. Loophole required them to shoot through a 2 inch loophole at various targets ranging from about 80 meters to 400 meters. All were small LaRue and pepper popper targets.
At the Mongolian Horde, the sniper teams were required to hit 10 targets per side switching out the shooter observer and targets ranged from LaRue up close, 140 meters, to IPSC iron maidens at 700 meters. The teams had to shoot all the targets with a single setting on their scopes and had 5 minutes to engage ten targets on a side, and thus ended day two with no night shooting event.
Day three started with half doing the bailout shoot and half stalking and then switching at mid day. The stalk was a 360 degree stalk. They had to get within 400 meters and the closer they got the more points they got for hitting the target on the live fire portion. Once they finished the stalk they had to replicate the shot live fire on the range at a target placed the lased distance and in the same opposition used for the blank fire. Bail out was a scenario in which a sniper team fired and was compromised and chased. They were required to engage targets with their pistol and observer weapon system at targets from 15 meters to 400 meters, stationary and moving. That night they were tasked with a night move out scenario with all the rockets’ red glare, explosions, and simulated shooting. This was the Night Scrambler and tested the snipers in judgment, movement tactics, and ability to shoot under stress of 9 bangers going off next to them. There was a special effects crew that set up rockets, explosions, as well as realistic gun fire distractions for the sniper teams. This ran well into the night and worked onto day four where they did it again!
Day four started with the Day Scrambler. While similar to the night scrambler, was longer and more intense. They were to move to a downed helicopter where a wounded pilot was to be rescued. They had to shoot at bad guys and not hit the good guys. They began shoot two movers mixed in with civilians and then FAST roped to the ground to move along a route full of bad guys and mixed in civilians. Once at the helicopter, unless you were very good you were out of ammo with a horde descending on you. Since Battle field recovery was authorized, an AK47 was sitting next to the helicopter for anyone that needed it. Also in the helicopter was a real human with only one leg and sporting blood. That sucker weighed about 225 and you should have seen the guys doing the fireman carry with this big sucker! Yes, he actually only had ONE leg! Now that they were tired and keyed up they came to the last event, “Back to Basics” in which they had one minute for each to fire a five round group at 25 meters into their assigned standard zero target. Group sizes were measured by the “On Target” system and points awarded according to tightest to largest group size.
Thus ended the comp with HHC USASOC in first, Rangers in Second, 1st Group in third, Marines in fourth and 10th Group in fifth. There were 19 teams ranging from Raleigh PD, DOE, ATF, each group, two Ranger teams, two Marine teams, Army Sniper School, and HHC USASOC. The prize table is huge with the banquet tonight at 1700 at the Holiday Inn Bordeaux. I plan on getting a bit drunk and seeing if I can catch a ride home or just sleep in the lobby!
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Vendors' Day Shoot: Knifemaker Bill Harsey won the "Chuck Norris Trophy," with highest multi-gun score amongst all vendor and sponsor shooters. Here he's shooting the DTA SRS in 300 Win Mag, while the young lady behind him is shooting the DTA 7.62mm Covert.
Fayetteville Observer, Friday, Dec 10, 2010
<span style="font-weight: bold">Snipers brave tough competition at Fort Bragg </span>
A sniper looks back for his teammate as they reach the main target during the JFK Special Warfare Center sniper competition.
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
"Ahhhhhhhh!" screams a soldier with a blown-off leg inside the wreckage of a crashed helicopter. "Get me out of here!"
Scurrying through an exercise of the sniper competition Thursday at Fort Bragg, two members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives police team fire at targets from behind a junked car and atop a building before making their way into a door of the downed aircraft.
Loud, sporadic bursts of machine gun fire echoed through the mock village from a Humvee moving fast in reverse. The soldiers in the truck provide suppressive fire in the simulated rescue on Range 37 at the Miller Training Complex.
"Your heart is pumping. Your cardiovascular system is going about 100 miles an hour," said Sgt. 1st Class Tomas Eggers, a sniper with the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment of Fort Benning, Ga. "You shake a lot. You're trying to control that weapon. All you want to do is get some breath."
Thursday was the last day of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Sniper Competition, held for the second year on Fort Bragg. The multi-stage event included a dozen exercises, or challenges, over four days.
The teams competed in a sniper stalk, a timed rapid-fire engagement, urban shooting, firing under stressful conditions and other tests of sniper skills and marksmanship.
The targets ranged from 15 to 800 meters away.
"In my opinion," Eggers said, "this is the best sniper course in the Army."
In October, Fort Bragg instructors with the Army Special Operations Command Sniper School won the title at the 10th annual International Sniper Competition on Fort Benning. Those senior noncommissioned officers did not compete this week; instead they helped run the competition.
Still, 19 two-man sniper teams were gunning for top honors at Fort Bragg, the majority of them Special Forces groups. The field included marksmen with the ATF; the Raleigh Police Department's Special Enforcement Unit; the Pasadena (Calif.) Police Department SWAT team; and the Department of Energy.
The first-place team was with Headquarters of the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, said Maj. Dave Butler, a spokesman for the Army's John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Third Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment from Fort Benning, Ga., came in second, followed by the 1st Special Forces Group out of Fort Lewis, Wash., he said.
Thursday's "stress shoot" competition was intense.
The ATF snipers pulled Enrique Alvarez from the helicopter and carried him down the street. They then hoisted the 42-year-old role player from San Diego - who actually lost his left leg in a fight 15 years ago - into the rear of the Humvee.
For participants, the event was a culmination of everything: weapons handling, physical fitness, elevated heart-rate shooting, time management and the engagement of threatening targets while encountering friendly ones.
All of it had to be done from awkward shooting positions while on the move and wearing body armor and a helmet and carrying a sniper rifle, noted Master Sgt. Kevin Owens, who was in charge of the course.
Competitors had to rope down a four-story building (meant to represent a helicopter) before hustling down the road and pinpointing targets along the course.
"It's difficult. It's challenging," said Sgt. 1st Class Jereme Groves of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces Regiment. "There are a lot of equations that go into it. You have to fully develop the fundamentals and pay attention to the details. It's very rewarding."
Not only must these riflemen be deadly shots, the soldiers say, but they have to be smart. Judging distance is essential.
"It all starts with marksmanship fundamentals, but you have to do mathematical formulas in your head," Eggers said. "You can't just be someone who shoots real well. You make connections on the fly. You take into account the size of the target. A sniper must have the ability to learn."
"This is stuff we teach at the school," Butler said. "These are specific lessons learned in training. We teach it because it's based on real combat experience."
Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3529.
Fayetteville Observer slide show:
http://photos.fayobserver.com/mycapture/...mp;move=F#Image
=====================================
<span style="font-weight: bold">USASOC Sniper Comp</span>
Well guys, the USASOC sniper Comp is now history. It finished up with the Day Scrambler event and “Back to Basics Shoot”. All had fun, most enjoyed, some were a bit frustrated, all learned that the basics are important!
Day one, 6 Dec consisted of the cold Bore shoot, single shot by both team members at a target size of their choice: 3/4 MOA; 1 1/4 moa; or 2 MOA at 200 meters. Most forgot the basics of dry firing and settling in before the first shot and paid the price. After that event the competitors were split into two groups with half going to the Field Shoot and half to the low percentage shoot.
Field shoot had five targets on a side at ranges from 550 to 800 meters. Targets were 12 inch gongs. The teams would move to one side and the sniper would shoot five targets in 5 minutes, 30 seconds, and then switch sides, targets, and shooter/observer. They then shoot the five targets on that side in 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Here the basics were important as well as sequence.
The other event was the low percentage shoot in which the snipers had to locate and hit designated threat targets mixed in with civilians. The targets were heads only with about 1/4 to 1/2 of the head covered. Ranges were from 80 meters to about 370 meters. The sniper teams had to move into a room in a building, establish their site, and engage the targets in 8 minutes. Finally the tired puppies were sent out to the Night Field Shoot which was ran similar to the day field shoot except during the day they could not use lasers or other aids -- only mil -- during the night they could mil, use lasers illuminators, etc to assist in the target hits. Thus ended the first day of competition.
Day two started off with One Shot in which the sniper team engaged two targets, one at 700 meters (a 12 inch gong), and the other at 650 meters (a square 14 inch gong). The sniper with bolt gun engaged the 12 inch with a single shot and then switched over to the observer with a gas gun to engage the square gong. They could use laser range finders, mil dot, whatever was necessary to hit the target with that one shot. They had 1 minute each to engage.
After this they again split and went to the Loophole shoot and the Mongolian Horde shoot. Loophole required them to shoot through a 2 inch loophole at various targets ranging from about 80 meters to 400 meters. All were small LaRue and pepper popper targets.
At the Mongolian Horde, the sniper teams were required to hit 10 targets per side switching out the shooter observer and targets ranged from LaRue up close, 140 meters, to IPSC iron maidens at 700 meters. The teams had to shoot all the targets with a single setting on their scopes and had 5 minutes to engage ten targets on a side, and thus ended day two with no night shooting event.
Day three started with half doing the bailout shoot and half stalking and then switching at mid day. The stalk was a 360 degree stalk. They had to get within 400 meters and the closer they got the more points they got for hitting the target on the live fire portion. Once they finished the stalk they had to replicate the shot live fire on the range at a target placed the lased distance and in the same opposition used for the blank fire. Bail out was a scenario in which a sniper team fired and was compromised and chased. They were required to engage targets with their pistol and observer weapon system at targets from 15 meters to 400 meters, stationary and moving. That night they were tasked with a night move out scenario with all the rockets’ red glare, explosions, and simulated shooting. This was the Night Scrambler and tested the snipers in judgment, movement tactics, and ability to shoot under stress of 9 bangers going off next to them. There was a special effects crew that set up rockets, explosions, as well as realistic gun fire distractions for the sniper teams. This ran well into the night and worked onto day four where they did it again!
Day four started with the Day Scrambler. While similar to the night scrambler, was longer and more intense. They were to move to a downed helicopter where a wounded pilot was to be rescued. They had to shoot at bad guys and not hit the good guys. They began shoot two movers mixed in with civilians and then FAST roped to the ground to move along a route full of bad guys and mixed in civilians. Once at the helicopter, unless you were very good you were out of ammo with a horde descending on you. Since Battle field recovery was authorized, an AK47 was sitting next to the helicopter for anyone that needed it. Also in the helicopter was a real human with only one leg and sporting blood. That sucker weighed about 225 and you should have seen the guys doing the fireman carry with this big sucker! Yes, he actually only had ONE leg! Now that they were tired and keyed up they came to the last event, “Back to Basics” in which they had one minute for each to fire a five round group at 25 meters into their assigned standard zero target. Group sizes were measured by the “On Target” system and points awarded according to tightest to largest group size.
Thus ended the comp with HHC USASOC in first, Rangers in Second, 1st Group in third, Marines in fourth and 10th Group in fifth. There were 19 teams ranging from Raleigh PD, DOE, ATF, each group, two Ranger teams, two Marine teams, Army Sniper School, and HHC USASOC. The prize table is huge with the banquet tonight at 1700 at the Holiday Inn Bordeaux. I plan on getting a bit drunk and seeing if I can catch a ride home or just sleep in the lobby!
======================================
Vendors' Day Shoot: Knifemaker Bill Harsey won the "Chuck Norris Trophy," with highest multi-gun score amongst all vendor and sponsor shooters. Here he's shooting the DTA SRS in 300 Win Mag, while the young lady behind him is shooting the DTA 7.62mm Covert.
Fayetteville Observer, Friday, Dec 10, 2010
<span style="font-weight: bold">Snipers brave tough competition at Fort Bragg </span>
A sniper looks back for his teammate as they reach the main target during the JFK Special Warfare Center sniper competition.
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
"Ahhhhhhhh!" screams a soldier with a blown-off leg inside the wreckage of a crashed helicopter. "Get me out of here!"
Scurrying through an exercise of the sniper competition Thursday at Fort Bragg, two members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives police team fire at targets from behind a junked car and atop a building before making their way into a door of the downed aircraft.
Loud, sporadic bursts of machine gun fire echoed through the mock village from a Humvee moving fast in reverse. The soldiers in the truck provide suppressive fire in the simulated rescue on Range 37 at the Miller Training Complex.
"Your heart is pumping. Your cardiovascular system is going about 100 miles an hour," said Sgt. 1st Class Tomas Eggers, a sniper with the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment of Fort Benning, Ga. "You shake a lot. You're trying to control that weapon. All you want to do is get some breath."
Thursday was the last day of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Sniper Competition, held for the second year on Fort Bragg. The multi-stage event included a dozen exercises, or challenges, over four days.
The teams competed in a sniper stalk, a timed rapid-fire engagement, urban shooting, firing under stressful conditions and other tests of sniper skills and marksmanship.
The targets ranged from 15 to 800 meters away.
"In my opinion," Eggers said, "this is the best sniper course in the Army."
In October, Fort Bragg instructors with the Army Special Operations Command Sniper School won the title at the 10th annual International Sniper Competition on Fort Benning. Those senior noncommissioned officers did not compete this week; instead they helped run the competition.
Still, 19 two-man sniper teams were gunning for top honors at Fort Bragg, the majority of them Special Forces groups. The field included marksmen with the ATF; the Raleigh Police Department's Special Enforcement Unit; the Pasadena (Calif.) Police Department SWAT team; and the Department of Energy.
The first-place team was with Headquarters of the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, said Maj. Dave Butler, a spokesman for the Army's John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Third Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment from Fort Benning, Ga., came in second, followed by the 1st Special Forces Group out of Fort Lewis, Wash., he said.
Thursday's "stress shoot" competition was intense.
The ATF snipers pulled Enrique Alvarez from the helicopter and carried him down the street. They then hoisted the 42-year-old role player from San Diego - who actually lost his left leg in a fight 15 years ago - into the rear of the Humvee.
For participants, the event was a culmination of everything: weapons handling, physical fitness, elevated heart-rate shooting, time management and the engagement of threatening targets while encountering friendly ones.
All of it had to be done from awkward shooting positions while on the move and wearing body armor and a helmet and carrying a sniper rifle, noted Master Sgt. Kevin Owens, who was in charge of the course.
Competitors had to rope down a four-story building (meant to represent a helicopter) before hustling down the road and pinpointing targets along the course.
"It's difficult. It's challenging," said Sgt. 1st Class Jereme Groves of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces Regiment. "There are a lot of equations that go into it. You have to fully develop the fundamentals and pay attention to the details. It's very rewarding."
Not only must these riflemen be deadly shots, the soldiers say, but they have to be smart. Judging distance is essential.
"It all starts with marksmanship fundamentals, but you have to do mathematical formulas in your head," Eggers said. "You can't just be someone who shoots real well. You make connections on the fly. You take into account the size of the target. A sniper must have the ability to learn."
"This is stuff we teach at the school," Butler said. "These are specific lessons learned in training. We teach it because it's based on real combat experience."
Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3529.
Fayetteville Observer slide show:
http://photos.fayobserver.com/mycapture/...mp;move=F#Image
