New comedy, and a random aside about marksmanship · 6:41am May 25th, 2012
I just pulled the trigger on my newest comedy, For the Love of Science. This one takes place in the same 'universe' as Naked Singularity, so if you liked Twilight's brand of adorkable humor there, hopefully you'll like this one as well. For those of you who hate clicking links, here's the summary:
"Twilight has a date! Maybe. Her date doesn’t know it’s a date, which makes it more like half of a date.
But before she can go on her date, she needs to retrieve her journal, which has become unstuck from time. Her journal, full of hopes and dreams and pleasures, none of which can ever be allowed to see the light of day.
It’s a story of love, science and time travel, and the lengths one pony will go to for all three. Paradoxes be damned; Twilight has a date!"
Anyway, with every blog post I try to include a random aside about Afghanistan or the military in general. Today's random aside is... marksmanship!
Despite the fact that bullets travel in a straight line, actually "shooting straight" apparently does not come naturally to most people. Guns are loud and they kick you and they're dangerous and scary and they bite your fingers if you hold them wrong. This tends to freak people out the first time they hit the range, and it's not surprising they don't do well at hitting the targets (which don't even shoot back).
I'm not a sniper. I am, however, pretty good with rifles and pistols, and have set a few class records in my time. There's really no secret -- just listen to what the instructors say, do what they tell you to do, hit what they tell you to hit.
I don't have any tips for pistols. I never understood how people could miss. Just point the gun at the target and pull the trigger. It baffles me that people actually miss with these things.
Anyway, rifles. These are a bit trickier. If you ever find yourself on the firing line, here's the secret to scoring expert:
First, get in a good prone position. Your legs should be slightly splayed, with your right leg (assuming you're shooting right-handed) straight behind you and your left kicked out at a slight angle. Turn your feet so your instep is flat to the ground.
Get a good cheek weld. Your eye should only be a few inches from the scope or sight. If you're using an M-16, the tip of your nose should almost touch the charging handle. Don't worry, it won't kick you.
Tuck the gun up nice and tight in your shoulder. If you're wearing body armor this can be a pain, but just stick it in there as best you can.
Okay, speaking of M-16, I forgot to mention this part. When you were at the armory and the sergeant asked if you wanted an M-4 or an M-16, you probably chose the M-4 because it's lighter and looks bad-ass. If you're taking that weapon with you to Afghanistan, you made a pretty good choice. M-4s are infinitely easier to carry around, move through crowds, get in and out of humvees, etc. If all you're doing is qualifying on the range, however, you made a poor choice. The M-16 has a longer sight picture and a longer barrel, which translates to a higher muzzle velocity, which means your bullets go straighter on their way to your target. For marksmanship, get the M-16.
Okay, you've got a good firing position. Look through the sights at the 300 meter target. Set the front sight over the target and focus ONLY on the front sight. You'll notice the target itself gets a bit blurry. Don't worry about this, just keep that front sight on the center of the (blurry) target.
Take a few good breaths. Good? Okay, here's the trick that gets you the expert ribbon.
Close your eyes. Take a full breath, in and out. Open your eyes.
The front sight probably budged a bit. It's not on the target anymore. Adjust your body, not your arms, until the front sight is on the target again.
Close your eyes. Breathe in, breathe out. Open your eyes.
Front sight move again? Readjust as above.
Front sight still on the target? Great.
Imagine your gun is unloaded. When you squeeze the trigger, all that's going to happen is a loud click as it dry fires. There will be no loud noise, no recoil, no punch in your shoulder. All that will happen is a click.
Inhale. Exhale halfway. Slowly, with control, squeeze the trigger.
Repeat 89 more times. Collect your expert ribbon.
Next up: A new short story. Not a comedy.
I seriously cannot wait for the story to hit. If it is anything like Naked Singularity, I have high hopes indeed!
And again, your military insights are really fascinating!
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What do you mean for the story to hit? You can read it now, the link is up there.
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That's what you get for skimming things at work! Good lord, I am stupid, haha.
Challenge Accepted.
Today:
> Hung out with friend I haven't seen in a few months.
> Got some good recording done for a fan parody.
> Cold in Gardez posts a new story.
...You know I showed said friend the season 2 finale, and now I actually want to sing "This day has been just perfect..." And I don't even -like- that song.
I look forward to finding a chunk of time to read this. I doubt I'll ever have a use for the marksmanship lesson (I think if anyone handed me a gun they would receive only the most bewildered of glances in return), but it was a very interesting read. Thanks for taking the time out of your life to be so damn entertaining.
Also if this doesn't get featured I will be disappointed in the fandom. Especially considering how long that "what if Twilight was really a pea?" fic has been up...
So I'm thirteen or fourteen and up north in a full-blown, deadly cold Canadian winter, camping with the Air Cadets.
Along with the mandatory activities, we get to choose a couple of things we'd like to do. There's learning how to put on snowshoes, learning how to walk around in snowshoes, and learning how to flatten out a place for your tent in the snow about a foot above the ground (for the extra insulation so that you don't die). You do this with snowshoes.
There's also range. Which everyone wants to do. Because it's range. I remember being so excited, so sure that I was going to be a born natural. After all, I had all those years of archery under my belt. Turns out guns and bows are different. I'm not sure how that one was lost on me.
I remember getting in and lying down like they tell me to and staring at the target in disbelief. "I'm supposed to hit that?" I think to myself. "I can't even see that, and I have perfect vision."
Except I didn't have perfect vision. Another thing that was lost on me was the fact that I had two lazy eyes. Yeah, I had never taken that into account when building my expectations. You know how Derpy looks in the show? That was me until I went and got corrective surgery. I'm not exaggerating at all here: I could only ever see out of one eye at a time, had no depth perception, and would start seeing double if I stopped focusing for about three seconds.
This coupled with my inexperience, and the fact that I'm really nothing special anyway, meant that I hit I think two or three of the ten shots. I remember being extremely jealous of my brother, who had also gone for his first time and beaten some of the most accurate cadets. The ones on the actual shooting team. But! All hope for me was not lost. There was still another day of activities!
And that is the story of how I learned everything you might need to know about snowshoes.135606
thanks for that my bro could have used the tips hes in Parris island right now just got done with grass week i think and of course when i see that someone has done time in Iraq/Afghanistan all sorts of dumb questions that you should NEVER ask someone that has seen combat pop in my head...my curiosity has no limits
now for a good question what is your lest favorite piece of military equipment to work with? and why?
Least favorite? Ha!
I had to think for about 20 seconds on that one. The winner by a mile is.... dun dun dun... the M50 gas mask! With a supporting role played by the entire set of MOPP chemical protective gear.
Yes, we still carry these things around with us. In case, you know, we get attacked with mustard gas or something. While this nominally makes sense in Korea, it's absolutely baffling here in Afghanistan. Chem gear is hot, awkward, heavy, and has never saved a single life, to my knowledge, since World War I.
And don't worry about asking stupid questions. Yes, there are such things as stupid questions, but that doesn't make them any less valid than every other question.
I shoot way better with rifle than pistol. The primary reason is I flinch. Its something Im working on. Its from anticipating the shot and trying to 'throw' your arms down to compensate for the kick instead of just letting it happen. At one point not too long after I started shooting, it was so bad I had occasional 'Failure to Pull Trigger' because I preempted the kick to such an extent my arms locked up and prevented my fingers from moving properly. Im better now but it occasionally creeps up on me when Im not watching.