War Cry and Hot Brass
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Didn't know about this sub but it is bringing back Basic Training memories. I was 18 and Female with long hair so it was in a bun. Being forced to have short hair when younger, I wasn't giving it up. This was also several years ago so the.... days are sort of blurred together. This might have happened all on one day, or two separate days. I can't remember, but it was at the same range.
I could not get a decent shot group to save my life with all the gear on. The magical "pocket" was nowhere near convenient since it involved I rotate the IBA as far left as I could manage which bumped my bun, my bun pushed the Helmet down my face, the Helmet shoved my glasses down my nose, me trying to fight it all so I could use the sights, and overall just added so much muscle tension that I forever blame that as the reason I couldn't get fully zeroed. At AIT, the "never had someone not zeroed" eventually had to admit defeat and just let me join the last round of qualifiers for the day. It remains untested with the M4, but I'd always made the claim "If you let me shoot without all this gear....".
Back to BCT, I'd get a nice group of 4 with an outlier. Immediately followed by a group of 3 and 2 outliers. Every. Single. Time. I could not get a group of 4-5 shots back to back. My Spotter was confused because he was checking my breathing and trigger squeeze and everything was correct, how am I not getting good groupings? Drill Sergeants will notice all the little details about a soldier like this female is still here and still zeroing, but sometimes they miss things not related to a soldier, like how this M4 ejected shells at about the 4:30 position. Spotter figured this out quick and moved back a bit to not get hit. Eventually a Drill Sergeant decided I wasn't motivated enough about hitting the target and thus ensued:
DS: You should want to kill that target, soldier! That target killed your mother!
Me: My mom could be dead in a ditch for all I know. /shrug
DS: Then they killed your sister!
Me: I don't have a sister.
DS: Your brother!
Me: They're my stepbrothers.
DS: Your grandma!
Me: Okay, that works.
DS: Now give me your WAR CRY!!!
Me: /brain stalls and I sound like Mulan's war cry at the training camp
I swear there was the tiniest hint he was going to smile before he schooled his expression.
This exchange was then immediately followed by us doing the "Firing While Approaching The Target" scenario and the Drill Sergeant decided he would replace my Spotter, so my Spotter got to watch what unfolded and filled me in on what happened. The Drill Sergeant was shouting motivations at me as we began, and shortly after went silent. I assumed he was making sure I was shooting correctly, not aiming high in the air, flagging people, or something else stupid. Turns out, he was getting pelted by the hot brass. He had to stop yelling and focus on not having hot brass land in his face and get the hot brass that fell down his shirt out. Oddly enough, I was never told to take my weapon back to the Arms Room to fix what I now know is a Short Stroke issue. Only reason I had an M4 was due to not having enough AR15s so us short ones were given the M4.
TLDR: I have shitty shot groups. Drill Sergeant yelling to get me motivated and replaces my Spotter for Fire While Approaching Target practice. My M4 ejects brass angled 45 degrees right at him so he stops yelling at me.
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