LET’S SEE WHAT YOU GOT
How good a rifle shot are you? Do you really know? It’s a valid question, because you need to know your capabilities before you have to pull a trigger when it matters.
Since I became involved in writing about guns, I’ve been looking for a protocol I could use to evaluate the suitability of a practical rifle; more specifically—how the rifle interfaces with the shooter.
Sometime back, I settled on the Forty-Five Drill to do exactly the same thing with defensive handguns. I also found it to be an excellent tool to evaluate shooter skill. I wanted the same simple drill—sort of a qualification course—I could use for the same purpose with rifles and riflemen.
THE LOGIC OF QUALIFICATION
There are many different qualification courses for the rifleman. The Army requires a soldier to hit 23 out of 40 pop-up silhouette targets from between 5 and 300 meters. With a 90 percent success rate, a solider receives an “expert” ranking. The Marines use a similar, but tougher, course that’s arguably less practical. And the NRA offers a
