Fundamentals of Riflecraft 16JUN24

Valeriy Marcus, master sergeant of the battalion, called me to his office, a dark narrow corridor with bunk beds on one side and shelves full of equipment on the other. 

He wanted me to give the young 47th battalion marksmen and snipers, but with what resources? I’m a teacher, not a magician….He pulled 200 rounds of 7.62x51mm ammunition from under his bed, his personal ammo, and asked me to divide it up amongst the students. 200 rounds for 40 students? 

We had just returned from our first rotation to the front lines, and two guys Marcus had recruited who had prior combat experience with scopes rifles were killed. They had saved their pennies and bought a top of the line American made rifle, the best scope they could afford, a nice titanium silencer from Finland, but had almost no ammo for it, no training, and nowhere to train. They never got a chance to shoot that rifle, it was passed to me in mint condition. 

I took stock of the equipment and resources we had in front of us; we had plenty of standard infantry rifles, a surplus of standard ball ammunition and some captured Russian 7N6M armor piercing 5.45x39mm ammo. We had very few scopes, but the real problem was scope mounts. Ukranian AK74s didn’t have side scope mounts. 

A few guys had bought personal weapons, an AR10 here, an ar15 there, a few off-the-books American m14 Cold War battle rifles, but no ammo for NATO caliber weapons at that time, no magazines for m14, no scopes, no scope mounts, no steel targets… Dammit. How could I perform the training they wanted me to perform?

I wished then that I could just teleport those 40 eager soldiers in my care straight to California to train at our facility… we have every resource a young rifleman needs to train and learn and become confident in his skills. This was July 2022, early in the war when everyone was tense. We improvised as best we could, to prepare the boys for their dangerous future. 

Later, through a concerted effort from our Monarch Defense students at home, donors all over the world, volunteers in Poland and Ukraine, and soldiers motivated to learn, I was able to return to Ukraine in September 2022, carrying on my back all the necessary scopes, scope mounts, magazines, ammunition making equipment, and we trained and equipped the bourgeoning 47th battalion’s (later brigade) marksmen, snipers and rifle instructors. 

This is that class: everything you need to know about how to use a rifle, in great detail, with the focus and efficiency of looming life and death conflict, but with the infinite resources and flexibility of our expansive Northern California shooting school. All rifles are fundamentally the same, and skill with one type of rifle translates perfectly to skill with larger more capable weapons. This class is for folks who are looking to improve their technical knowledge of ballistics, zeroing, mental math, bullet trajectory, and shooting fundamentals. We welcome all calibers, all barrel lengths, all optical sighting systems. We also provide rifles, scopes, and magazines free of charge to students who wish to borrow, hence you don’t need to worry about having the right gear. Come and learn, meet us and meet the facility, and then make informed purchases once you know what to buy. 

This class is suited to beginners who are just learning to shoot a rifle, and for experienced students looking to prepare a solid foundation as they get ready to transition to much bigger and more expensive weapon systems to shoot farther. If you are interested in long range precision shooting, then start here to build your foundation. This class is technical and academic. It is not physically intense, involves no running or crawling. Plan for 50% of the day to be notebook and whiteboard time. All shooting is slow fire for maximum precision and accuracy. If you are looking for the more physically and tactically intense training, please see Basic Combat Rifle. 

Prerequisite:

You must have prior safe weapons handling experience.

Topics: 

What is a rifle, what does it do, and what do we do with it? 
How do bullets fly, or the study of ballistics
Minutes of angle
Milliradians
Yards versus meters
Inches vs centimeters
Defining accuracy vs precision
Proper zeroing procedure
Shooting positions
Finding your maximum theoretical effective range
Practicing hold over and hold unders
Dialing for distance vs holding for distance
How to mount and level scopes
Comparison of rifle and caliber capabilities and how to select and buy equipment
First focal plane vs Second focal plane scopes 

Schedule: 

8:45 am Setup, issue out ammo and weapons 
9:00 am Safety brief and theory
11:00 am Zeroing and fundamentals live fire practice
2:00 pm target practice on paper targets with drills to improve shooting fundamentals
5:00 pm steel target practice on our known distance rifle range out to 800 meters/900 yards
7:00 pm Debrief, clean up, go home 

Location:

Our facility is in the mountains 1 hour east of San Jose, 1 hour south from Livermore. Detail directions will be emailed to those who sign up. If you are inexperienced in driving mountain roads, give yourself 2 hours to make the trip from most places in the bay area.

Packing list: 

Notebook and pen/pencil
Ruler that reads in centimeters and inches
Layer garments so you can adjust for cold, wet, or warm weather
Hat
Rifle, any caliber (school can provide weapons free of charge, contact us for info)
250+ rounds of ammunition, or pay $80 for unlimited ammo from the school
Cleaning kit with oil, rag, toothbrush
Eye protection
Ear protection 
Tools for mounting and adjusting sights
user manual for your optic, recommend downloading the PDF ahead of time.
Sling
1 gallon of water
Salty snacks and bag lunch