RIFLE MACHINE GUN ZERO RANGE

A RIFLE MACHINE GUN ZERO RANGE trains military soldiers on aligning the sights. Additionally it allows for practice of basic marksmanship with targets which are stationary. This range supports night fire operations. M16 and M4 series rifles are used on the range for training Shot-Grouping and Zeroing exercises.

The firing line is 132 meters wide, and firing positions are found along the firing line within each lane. Choosing the fighting position will determine the width of the firing position.
This RTLP Rifle Machine Gun Zero Range will usually have 32 lanes or less, depending on the troop requirements. Each lane should be 4 meters wide and 25 meters long.

The targets for M16/M4 are stationary and placed 25 meters from the firing line, For machine gun the stationary targets are at 10 meters.

Primary features include:
32 Target frames at 25m
16 Target frames at 10 m
32 Foxholes

Associated Range Operations and Control facilities:
Standard Small Arms ROCA Facilities.

Steady position, aim, trigger control, and breath control are the fundamentals of marksmanship.

Steady Position-In automatic fire, position is the most important aspect of marksmanship. If the gunner has a good zero, correctly aims his weapon, and properly applies a steady hold in firing a burst of automatic fire, the first round of that burst hits the target at the point of aim. However, this procedure is not necessarily true of the second and third rounds. The first round hits the aiming point the same as when a round is fired singularly. The recoil from the first and subsequent rounds progressively disturb the lay of the weapon with each round of the burst. The relationship between the point of impact of the first and subsequent rounds of the burst depends on the stability of the gunner's position. His body, directly behind the weapon, serves as the foundation, and his grip serves as a lock to hold the weapon against the foundation. The better the body alignment and the steadier the grip, the less dispersed the rounds of a burst of automatic fire will be.

Trigger Control- The gunner must learn how to control the trigger so, that he may get the desired burst. Holding the trigger straight back and releasing it helps manipulate the number of rounds in each burst.

Aim-To aim the machine gun, the gunner must focus his eye and align the sights. Next he must obtain a correct sight picture, maintain trigger and breath control.

Breath Control - When firing single shots, the gunner stops breathing after most of the air has been exhaled and fires before he feels any discomfort. For automatic fire, the gunner exhales and stops breathing when holding the trigger. If there is not time to take breaths between bursts, the gunner will hold his breath before each burst or adapt his breathing by taking shallow, short breaths or big breaths between multiple bursts.