Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com, I'm Ian McCollum
And today I want to talk about a couple of comments, actually, that I got on a previous pair of videos
That we ran a couple weeks ago on a pair of U.S. Army .22 Caliber Training Rifles.
One by Springfield, the Springfield Model of 1922, and a Mossberg Model 44 U.S.
I got a surprising number of comments on those videos from people who were suggesting that it would be really stupid for the Army to train people on .22s
When the actual Army rifle is a .30-06.
And I think this indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of marksmanship training.
So that's something substantial enough that I wanted to address it in a short video here today.
Now, the idea of training with a .22 is that you're avoiding recoil.
Now that's, I think, exactly what these commenters were complaining about.
You need to be able to control recoil in order to be able to shoot well with, say, a .30-06.
However, you don't learn to do that by shooting the .30-06 first.
This is very much like, say, pilot training.
If you have a particularly squirrely and unstable, but very maneuverable and capable fighter,
You don't train pilots by taking them as new recruits and throwing them in the squirrely plane
And basically saying, "Good luck! If you make it back on the ground, you're doing well."
No, you put them up in a two-seater, very stable, very simple training aircraft until they're pretty good pilots and only then
Do you let them loose on the aircraft that has more potential and the one that's actually going to be used in combat,
But the one that's more difficult to operate.
The exact same thing goes for marksmanship.
You don't give this brand new recruit who, often, is not... has never really fired a gun before in their life.
You don't give them a Garand or a 1903 Springfield right out of the gate because it's going to kick quite heavily,
They're not going to be used to it, they're going to develop flinches,
You're going to... It's going to be much harder to make progress in teaching them fundamental marksmanship skills that way.
Instead, you give them a .22 Caliber rifle where you can basically, you can teach the fundamentals:
Sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control, and follow through
Without having the recoil interrupting their learning process.
So they don't have to be fighting all these four things they're trying to learn,
As well as getting kicked in the shoulder every time they pull the trigger as well.
This is especially important when you realize that fundamental marksmanship is best taught prone,
Where everything is as stable as possible and, you know what? Recoil is also the worst prone
Because, instead of you rocking back with the shot...
Sorry, to do it properly, here...
Rocking back with the shot,
Instead of that, when you're prone, the thing just slams into your shoulder.
And you eat all of the recoil from it.
So, .22 Caliber training rifles were used by every military on the planet.
There are a ton of German World War II,
Well, most pre-World War II, training rifles like the KKWs,
The U.S. Military had them, and you'll find them everywhere else. You'll find .22 Caliber training rifles,
Training versions of Lebels and Berthiers.
I even, in fact, have a .22 Caliber Berthier Trainer.
So, this was a standard practice and what I think some people don't understand is the fundamentals of marksmanship,
Once you can shoot a .22 Caliber well, that skill translates extremely effectively into all other firearms.
So, or at least, all other rifles and pistols.
Once you have mastered the sights and the trigger and the follow through on a .22,
You're really well positioned to be able to shoot, say, an M1 Garand.
At this point, all that you have to actually learn is recoil control.
How to hand the heavy version of what you have been shooting.
And in this way, it's very much like pilot training.
You wait until you're a good pilot, then they give you the difficult-to-fly aircraft.
Same thing with rifles.
So, hopefully, I'm sure a lot of people already know this and so, well, if you did know this and sat through the video anyway,
Thank you? I suppose? Hopefully there are a lot of people who we have been able to educate a bit here today.
And if you are in a position where you don't do, you haven't done any shooting yourself,
It is common practice and it's a good idea to start with a .22 Caliber rifle.
For exactly the same reasons that the military did it. You'll become a better shooter, faster and you're a lot less likely to pick up bad habits
By starting with a .22 and then graduating into a full-power firearm, whether it's a rifle or a handgun.
Anyway, thank you very much for watching, stay tuned tomorrow, we'll be back with another cool ForgottenWeapon.