Does prior shooting experince help?
My recruiter told me that my past experince with firearms may acutally hurt me in boot camp, I was wondeirng if anyone could chime in if this was true or not. I don't see how this might be a problem though as I have done my best to eliminate any flinching I may have through extensive dry-firing drills. Anyways, this is incredibly important to me since I am going O311 and I do take marksmanship very seriously almost as much as I do religion (Just as important as being able to run 3 miles quickly or pumping out sit ups and crunches).
I was wondering if anyone had any input on what I can do to become the best rifleman I possibly can be when I ship. I go shooting every Saturday except when there is a Pool function, some of my "routine" includes shooting from a bench to zero in (Boresight, 3-shot groups), sometimes I fire from a supported position from a bench at 100 yards on paper, but most of the time I shoot off-hand, on one knee, or prone at hanging steel targets. I do most of my shooting with one of my AR-15s (16 inch carbine length with back up iron sights) but I have been using my friend's government profile build (20 inch barrel with A2 buttstock and carry handle iron sights).
How exactly does rifle qualification work in boot camp, and what kind of training/prerequistes would I need to go through or have to get that sort of "designated marksman" or equivalent position? I'm still in high school and I have both shot and cleaned my own firearms since the Summer of 2006, but I am always looking to improve. More dry fire drills? Practice more prone or standing? (I need to ween myself off getting the 2 inch groupings from a bench)
Just for fun, my best 100 yard grouping with an AR-15:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...yardresize.jpg
Building my second AR-15, started with the bare lower receiver, and a parts kit with the upper assembly already completed. 10 round magazines that are fixed or require a tool to dettach are required since I do live in California until something about the laws are done. (I push the takedown pin out and pivot the upper assembly out and load individual rounds into the magazine while its still in the well to load sort of like its a break open shotgun) :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...tartresize.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...shedresize.jpg