We went out to qualify on our weapons today. What fun!! It was a good little drive out to the range, as it was across the border in New Mexico (don't ask me why the range is so far away. Made for a good nap though). When we got there, we were on this flat desert plain with mountains rising in the not-so-distant horizon on three sides. It was absolutely gorgeous scenery.

I hadn't fired this particular M16 yet, as it was brand spankin' new and just issued to me. So we went to the zero range to adjust the weapon to me specifically. I had no issues zeroing.

Actually qualifying was a different matter. The first time I shot 13 out of 40. You need 26 to qualify. My shot groups were crazy tight, but consistently low. So essentially, all my rounds were going in the same place (whichs means I was aiming correctly), the rounds were just going too low. This was confusing to me though, as I had just zeroed, so it should be dead on. The second time I raised my sight picture and ended up firing 29. Good enough to qualify, but not great overall. Again, the shot groups were tight but tended to be low. This was true of all the misses. I really hope I get another chance to zero once I get to Kuwait.

Later that night we did a night fire, which is where they give you tracer rounds and fire in the dark so you see what it's like. If you've never seen it, tracer rounds glow a bright red. You end up with the bright red streak coursing through the sky as you fire them off. It was neat to watch 25 people firing tracer rounds all at the same time.

We got back around 10 pm, so I need to get to bed before I have to be up at 4 am. G'nite!