A Lesson in Ricochets

One day, the weapons instructors introduced us to the technique of firing live rounds. Now this is a little different from going down to the rifle range and learning to shoot; what we were going to do was learn how to shoot 20mm rounds from a machine gun mounted in an the wing root of a TA-4J Skyhawk pushing 540 knots in a 10 degree dive.

The salty lieutenants and lieutenant commanders taught us well. We learned the guns pattern would take us up to about 1500 to 1800 feet AGL. As we came around the corner, we would slice the nose down to the required 10 degrees. Next came the careful placement of the “pipper,” or gunsight, on the target. Then it was time to squeeze the trigger passing through 1100 feet down to 800 feet.

After releasing the trigger, it was time to “jink” off target.

“Never overfly your target,” one of the salty dogs said. They also taught us some other good pointers—such as, never fly the same flight path as the aircraft in front of you. In bad guy land, the bad guys may miss the lead aircraft due to a lack of a decent lead, but they may just get you if you are in trail.

Shooting guns from a jet aircraft was a great challenge and greater fun. By the way, in real life bullets don’t “stitch” up a trail like they do in all those John Wayne movies. All of the bullets go exactly where you have the gunsight placed.

When the experienced instructors emphasized not flying over the target, we believed them. They said there was a possibility you could actually shoot yourself down with one of your own bullets as it ricocheted off the target. They also said, “Don’t press the target.”

So, I did exactly as they taught. I ceased firing at 800 feet, rolled to about 45 degrees in angle of bank, and put about 5g the airplane. This allowed me to fly away from all those bullets I could not see.

I practiced this religiously each time I had the opportunity to go out and fire live. I always knew those weapons instructors were right and I would never intentionally press the target or pull off target without a good jink.

One day, while stationed in Guantanamo, the Marines allowed us to accompany them on one of their live fire exercises. The rifle team reinforced the lessons of our flight instructors about not overflying the target in a most effective way.

The young men carrying a Browning Automatic Rifle, also known as a BAR, had tracer rounds loaded at every fourth round. We were firing from a hill onto the salt flats. What I saw amazed me.

The tracers were very easy to see as they flew down to the salt flats. What happened after they hit the salt flats has never left me in all these years. Without rhyme or reason, the tracers ricocheted in every which direction after hitting the flats.

I thought back to the weapons instructors at Strike. The command should have invested in a few tracer rounds to illustrate emphatically the importance of never overflying the target.

Thank you, Marines.

-30-

© 2011 J. Clark

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4 Responses to A Lesson in Ricochets

  1. Is this where they got “don’t shoot yourself in the foot” ?

  2. flyinggma says:

    It’s a good day today. I learned something new. I would not have thought about the ricocheting. I was under the assumption that wherever the bullet went, that is where it stayed.

    Somewhere in the back of my mind from my boys gun safety training I remember something about not shooting out over water. I can’t remember if it is for the same reason.

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