GUNS Magazine December 1958 - Jeffersonian

It was still an easy shot. I should ha ve stood up and put one in the chest.Instead, I shifted around, still prone, to correct a position already impossible.She took another step or two, began to tr ot, and then soared away out of sight inthe beautiful and incredible bounding leaps of the western mule deer.I had a good rifle, an adequate load ; but hardware alone will not assuresuccess. Th e tr ouble lay with the man. It was the last day of the season, my lastchance for venison. But, venison asid e, the idea of fail ure was unattractive initself. And the worst of all, the final blow, was the memory of the whole summerof target pr actice I had done in preparation for this fiasco! Had I, by firinghu ndreds of sho ts from a bench rest at fixed targets, actually school ed myselfout of the ability to shoot confidently und er live-target pressure?Target shooting and live sho oting ar e worlds apart, in precision requirements,shooting positi ons, and especially in state of mind. That winter , the boys comingba ck fr om Korea told of bad cas ualties, of shooting problems and terrain totallyunlike the target ranges where they were tr ained . This terrain and type of war ­fare br ought to light a hithert o unrecognized deficiency in our soldiers' smallar ms perf ormance. Th e official stories tended to confirm my own conclusionsthat something was wrong. For their safety and effectiveness in combat, theseyoung men were entitled to the best weap ons training that could be devised.It is not cricket to tear something down witho ut at least sugges ting how tobuild better . Th en began a long process of collecting ideas, cullin g and compressingthem, seeking specific pr oposals for improvement . A plan began toemerge to mak e th e rifleman the cock of the Army through careful selection,Howard Sarvis is employedat the U.S. ArmyInfantry Human ResearchUnit. a field unit oftheGeorge Washin9ton UniversityHuman ResourcesResearch Office. operatin9under contract with theDept. of the Army. Theopinions and conclusionsare those of the writerand do not necessarilyrepresent views of theUniversity or Departmentof the Army.