USMC Rifle Marksmanship: How good are Marines at shooting?

Part 2. What are the standards to qualify with a rifle in the Marine Corps?

Part 2. What are the standards to qualify with a rifle in the Marine Corps? How well do Marines learn how to shoot? A deep dive into Marine Corps rifle standards.

The USMC rifle course has varied over the years, but the basic core is a modified National Match Cours. Here’s Table One as it stands today:

The “A” (Able), “D” (Dog), and B-Mod targets and dimensions:

The good aspects were discussed in Part 1:

TL;DR: Shooting with full feedback, a formal coaching program, and shot calling is an ideal way to achieve effective Shot Process development. Here’s insight from a man who was there. Kent Gooch was a USMC Scout-Sniper and Scout-Sniper instructor from 1979-1989 as well as a US Army National Guard sniper instructor from 1995-1998. He also has written articles on the subject for multiple US magazines, co-wrote The Military and Police Sniper and conducted Police and Military competitions and training here in the US and Austria.

I was one of the Marines that helped rewrite the Marine Corps Rifle Marksmanship program in the early 90's. I was a Warrant Officer in what was then called the 9925 Range Officer MOS. There were only about 30 of us in the Corps and we were responsible to WTBn, Quantico for the development and execution of small arms training as well as designing and supervising all of the live fire ranges in the USMC. I was also one of the course writers for the Small Arms Weapons Instructor Course at Quantico. At the time all we were doing for service rifle was the 500 yard KD course annually with occasional forays onto a popup range. (We also had a potent shooting team at Quantico that challenged AMU every year, but I won't get on that soapbox here). Having said all that...

In 1994 I stood on the front steps of Weapons Training Battalion, Parris Island with the then CO of WTBn, Quantico (my boss) Colonel Jack Cuddy (As a Captain he started the USMC scout-sniper instructor school at Quantico with Gunny Hathcock). I saw some of the changes that WTBn, Quantico was wanting to implement, and I was beside myself. They were making a lot of unnecessary changes to the program like changing the KD course that had worked well since we had '03 Springfields. I felt that all the USMC needed to do was keep doing what we were doing then tack on the Army popup course to the process and we would be good to go. Instead, they diluted the KD range training and instead of going to a popup type range that required target detection and range estimation skills they went with more time on the square range shooting at targets on sticks.

I was venting pretty hard at the Colonel (I knew him pretty well from my days as a scout-sniper instructor at Quantico) and he looked at me and said, "We can't make them all snipers Gooch!" I answered, "What's the difference between a sniper and a rifleman??" Answer for the uneducated is "NOTHING". All a sniper is, is a rifleman with enhanced skills and a precision rifle system. Well, I was overruled, and we have what we have now.

My bottom line? You need KD training AND Trainfire-ish training. Both services have this concept buried in the manuals but for some reason they miss the mark.

- Kent Gooch, USMC

It’s important to understand that this is officially called Entry Level Rifle for a reason. The approach is solid but it is a beginner’s course intended to be easy to pass. A hit anywhere in the full-size silhouette scores 100%. A passing score (190/250) can be had having missed the full-size targets 100%. “Expert” can be had with a 40-50% hit rate as 220 (dropping 30 points, which is 20 out of 50 hits) makes the cut-off.

In the mid-2000s, the Marine Corps added Table Two, a short-range course. The concept was great and a useful addition. Here’s the course:

The problem is that the new scoring approach rewards a lower level of total skill. Table 2 is rather easy and its standards are lower the the Army’s Short Range Marksmanship qualification course. A Marine that previously barely passed the KD/Table 1 course can now possibly qual at Sharpshooter or Expert levels without improving anything.

To actually reward total rifle use, the USMC should have scored Table 1 the way the old qual used to work and then score Table 2 with a separate standard. The overall qualification class (Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert) should be the lower result. So, shooting “Expert” on Table 2 but “Marksman” on Table 1 means the Marine quals as a Marksman. Raising overall qual would then require improving any weak area. That would better reflect actual skill in total rifle use.

Truth is, Marines are novice-level marksmen (even if they’re better than Army-trained personnel.) A skilled rifleman would routinely earn nearly perfect scores on both Table 1 and 2. Any Marine with more than 3-4 years of service claiming to be a good rifle marksman should shoot around 240 or better on Table 1 and close to 340 or better on the total qual. Failing to hit those marks in that amount of time indicates a shooter that has not trained in marksmanship effectively.

Marines previously incapable of making the already-easy 220 cut-off for “Expert” were now making the new 305/350 cut-off thanks to Table 2. Then Sgt. Ethan Rocke wrote an editorial identifying this issue:

Read the full article: https://firearmusernetwork.com/death-of-the-marine-marksman

In the interim, Marine Corps leadership has since boasted how the USMC now has about 60% of personnel qualifying “expert” exactly as Sgt. Rocke predicted over a decade ago in his essay when the standard was lowered. That’s what happens when you move the goalposts and reduce the standard low enough to make things easier.