Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. Home; News; Photos; Units; Leaders; Marines; Family; Community Relations; Unit Home. Installation Restoration Program Legal Services Support Team Public.Norell - Friday, March 1. August, 2. 00. 7Retired USMC Major and NRA Secretary . When he made that collection available to modern day instructors and students at Quantico. Land, who today serves as Secretary of NRA, is widely recognized as the father of modern Marine Corps sniping, having created and commanded the Corps. Retired USMC Major and NRA Secretary “Jim” Land is considered the founder of the modern Marine Corps sniping program and has. USMC Sniper Rifles: Hands On History. United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper (MOS 0317, formerly 8541) is a secondary MOS. There are currently four different school houses in the Marine Corps that offer the Scout Sniper Basic Course. Camp Pendleton Sniper School. Single Marine Program Dining Fitness Centers Commissary Marine Marts MCX. MP earns medal for graduating Scout Sniper school with top honors. MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE. The 31st MEU is the Marine Corps’ force of choice for the Asia. Marines endure Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. US Navy SEAL Sniper Training Program. Marine Corps Scout Sniper evolution since about. This User Manual gives basic information how to get started and get the. The Marine Corps started sniper schools at Camp Elliot. The Marine Corps Scout Sniper Program continues to grow and evolve. Always, the rifles are examined carefully, smartly shouldered by the students, then gently placed back on a blanketed table. But just once, on a muggy, hot summer day in June 2. Scout Sniper class of some 3. Marines, and their instructors. In pairs of shooters and spotters, over the course of the afternoon, each Marine fired each of the rifles. Before the extraordinary live- fire exercise, the rifles were laid out on matted firing points, marking from left to right the timeline of the history of sniper rifles and optics fielded by Marines in all of America. At the first firing point, a frustrated young Marine tries to reposition the clumsy World War I Warner & Swasey prismatic optic, which has shifted under the recoil of the first shot fired from the exquisite, early blue- finished 1. Springfield. At the second shot, his spotter shakes his head. The Unertl scopes were designed to absorb shock by sliding forward in the mounts under recoil. After each round is fired, the Captain pulls the scope back into place. But for the snappy new Marine digital fatigues, this could be a World War II or Korean War scene. Farther up the line, shooters, paired with spotters, fire M1. C and M1. D Garand sniper rifles. Another Marine works the bolt on a mint Remington- manufactured 1. A4 with an M7. 3B1 Weaver scope. Yet other Marines fire a pair of Vietnam- era Winchester Model 7. Unertl scopes. The ammunition used in these 3. They shot from prone, sitting, kneeling and offhand positions. These young men could shoot, and it hardly mattered which rifle from what era they were using. There was a major exception. Its lousy reputation among World War I riflemen held true that day. The exception to that exception was made by the perseverance of one of the instructors. With Land as his spotter, he kept at it until he mastered the scope, jamming it back into the same position after each shot. Finally, he was regularly hitting steel at 5. When the final . Most of them have already been in combat. It gives them a true appreciation for what the veterans before them have done with the gear and the weapons they had back then. But whether you are looking through something 6. It was definitely an honor to experience history. He created the first post- World War II scout sniper school in 1. Fleet Marine Force Pacific in Hawaii. There he quickly discovered the same thing that Col. Walter Walsh found when he was training snipers in World War II. Walsh, Land adopted as a basic primer a volume by World War I veteran sniper Herbert Mc. Bride: A Rifleman Goes to War. Land found himself without formal orders, standing before the First Division commanding general, Gen. Herman Nickerson, who told him: . Through the PX system in Okinwa, Land. They were mothballed after NRA changed match rules to limit service personnel to shooting service rifles. Among them were arms with heavy barrels and sporter stocks. Some of these rifles were equipped with 2. X Unertl scopes and mounts, which were originally procured as long- range match optics. At the time Land was organizing his first sniper teams, then- Major Cam Hayden (USMC), who was first officer in charge of Marine Marksmanship training, discovered the Model 7. Hayden made a lifelong career of NRA after leaving the Marine Corps.) Hayden, who calls his find . The rifles were worked over by Marine armorers. On the inspection sheet, you. The major problem they had with it was that if you got careless, it would fog up on you. Anytime we came back off of a patrol, the scopes would be put in a hot box to dry them out. Land said one of the armorers, Vic Johnson, kept a box of spiders to spin the filaments for replacement crosshairs as a field expedient. Before leaving Vietnam in 1. Land set up the initial testing program for what would become the basis for all Marine Corps sniping rifles for the foreseeable future: the 7. NATO (. 3. 08 Win.) M4. Remington with considerable design input from Marines in the field. Of the commercial actions available, why not the Model 7. And in Vietnam, we didn. They created the stock with the cheekpiece on it; they never had this heavy a barrel in this stock. We had the scopes sent in from Redfield. Remington mounted them, tested them, and they were put in a specific case and shipped to Vietnam or to Quantico. Ostensibly they had a built- in rangefinder, which Land said was . The main problem was the stock, which swelled and touched the free- floated barrel when it got damp or wet. Made in the Marine Corps. He said that when first issued it was topped with the Redfield 3- 9. X. But a variation was created for the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Unit that mounted a Weaver T- 1. Later, the rifles were re- scoped with special, strictly Marine Corps, 1. X Unertls. There is only one representative rifle missing in Land. Topped with an 5. X Winchester A- 5 scope with a Mann- Neider base, the rifle/scope combination was an unofficial natural replacement arm for the failed Warner- Swasey topped . When they were deployed in World War I, Land said, units took their long- range target guns into battle. The scopes, he said, were extremely fragile in combat. Between the wars, the Marine Corps made a search for a new sniper rifle which culminated in a 1. Van Orden and Calvin A. Gunner Lloyd, by the way, was a legendary Marine marksmanship coach, whose name now graces a range complex at Quantico. Referring to the . The high standards of the Model 7. The handguard was scalloped to accommodate the scope. Uniquely, armorers blued the bolts. When all was said and done, the Marines produced a very accurate sniper rifle, which saw extensive service in World War II and later in Korea. If we had taken a poll during the live- fire exercise with Land. The one on hand that day had a scant stock. Land says the rifles were never chosen for accuracy as were the Marine Model 1. It started off with a Weaver 3. M7. 3B1, which was a Weaver 3. Lyman Alaskan all- weather; then they went to the M8. M8. 2 (crosshair with post). Land said he believes that for all the hype about German optics, American wartime scopes were actually far superior. For his remarkable live- fire hands- on demonstration, Land also provided two pristine M1 sniper rifles. The Marine Corps M1. C differed from the Army version, having a much more robust Griffin & Howe side- mount rather than the standard Griffin & Howe unit. The Marine M1. C, which saw extensive use in Korea as the MC- 1. USMC Stith- Kollmorgen 4. X scope, according to Land, the best optic yet produced for the Corps. It saw service in Lebanon and Panama. Also on the firing line was Land. Land said both rifles, when used by Marine Corps snipers, were glass- bedded and given additional tuning by armorers. For Land, that day on the range was an odyssey of sorts. When we first came up with this idea, I thought, there goes the value of my collection, but now I know that watching those Marines firing rifles used by Marines in their fathers.
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