Rattle Battle

[sloughfoot]

For only the third time ever, a civilian rifle team came out ahead of the Marine and Army rifle teams in the match that simulates the infantry squad in the attack. Congratulations Virginia rifle team.

ISRPA and local clubs frequently have rattle battle teams for those of you looking for ways to use your Service rifles, M1 Garand, M1-A, and AR-15. Iron sights and a sling.

Great fun with a rifle..... when the Gunny behind you with the binocs hollers, favor left, favor right, you squeeze them off, quickly and accurately, while doing your best to follow his commands.

You fire at 600, 500, 300, and 200 yards. In that order.

The good teams are out of ammo before the 200 yard line.

You come to the line knowing your elevation zero for the distance. The Gunny on the binocs is in charge of the wind correction.

Every time I have shot the match, I have shot either right or left swing. This is the position that was the BAR gunner in the 1920's and 30's

CMP - First Shot Online!

 

[SmileDocHill]

I'm trying to picture the course of fire, this sounds fun.
You start at the 600yd line and have a certain amount of time to shoot as many rounds as you can accurately get off, then you go to the next line and shoot for a certain amount of time and so on. Everyone is going to be able to shoot the same total number of rounds for the match but I guess if you are able to get more of them off at the greater distance ranges they count for more? Am I close?

 

[sloughfoot]

The squad is issued one can of ammo. It is distributed to each member of the team as directed by the squad leader. The two swing shooters usually have more ammo than the center shooters. While the squad is firing, the squad leader and assistant are directing and observing the results of the firing. They are watching the bullet traces into the targets. If a center shooter cannot get on and is wasting their shots, the appropriate swing shooter is directed to fire on the target that is not getting hits. It is extremely important that all targets in the air get hits on them.

The firing time is 50 seconds. Hits at 600, 500, and 300 yards all get multipliers for hits. 600 and 500 are shot prone. 300 is fired sitting. 200 is fired standing.

As you are walking forward on line with your squad, the targets come up and you go into position and commence fire. Firing stops when the targets go down. And of course, there are teams on either side of you and all up and down the range concentrating on their little line of targets. The entire range moves and shoots at the same time. All are on line while moving forward. The squad leader ensure this.

There are also a couple of brass rats to follow behind to clean up the fired brass off the ground.

The Army and Marines usually dominate this match by getting all their hits at 600 yards with all ammo expended. It is very difficult to do.

 

[SmileDocHill]

CMP - National Trophy Rifle Matches

84 rounds from 6 member teams & they get them all off in the first 50 second stage....64 rounds each in 50 seconds is a very fast rifflemans cadence! Personally I think a lot of the fun sounds like the moving forward with your team and taking real time direction from your leader in the form of corrections and generally getting everyone to achieve better results as a unit than they could have individually.
I found this page... there are a lot of match styles and setups I'd never heard of before. Oops phone doesnt mame copy paste easy. Link is at top of post.

 

[sloughfoot]

Sometimes teams are desperate for a "new shooter". I don't think that teams that don't have a new shooter are in contention? You could be one next year....

 

[jblomenberg16]

Outstanding! I was a brass rat in for CMP team Michiana 2 years ago. Wow that was fun! Of course they were all firing M1 Garands vs. M16's, but still shot very well.

 

[Leo]

I played "rattle battle" a couple times with the AR-15. It was a lot of fun, and depended entirely on knowing your zeros at each distance. I have seen high masters completely puke because they were unfamiliar with their rifles. I think using M1's would be a lot of fun, maybe springfield bolt rifles. They would not be competitive for scores but it would be a great experience.

 

[sloughfoot]

Actually Leo, the Garand Collectors Association team has done pretty well. I keep hanging out hoping to get an invitation to shoot on the M1 Garand team.

I can't imagine shooting the 1903 unless it was like 1922 and you had the BAR gunners at each end....On second thought, I would like to shoot with a BAR gunner at each end.

 

[jblomenberg16]

double tap

 

[jblomenberg16]

Lets see if this video link works. This was when I was in the pit during 1 squad of the NTIT. That crack is of course the supersonic crack of the bullets over head, NOT the sound of the rifles being fired.