I remember working the butts in boot camp. The sonic crack of bullets passing a couple of feet over your head leaves an impression.
TV and movie folks that think that high-powered rifles can be easily silenced with a silencer should spend five minutes in the butts.
One time I worked the butts for a city kid on the firing line that was afraid of the M-14. My arms were getting tired from waving "Maggie's Drawers". Didn't see any snakes, though.
You Marines know what I am talking about.
I know exactly what you're talking about although I was in the Army. At Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, the first time my squad and I were down in the KD pits pulling and scoring targets, the SNAP of those .30-06 (Garand) bullets passing overhead were, uhhh, interesting, to say the least.
Later, we got used to it. Fifty soldiers on the ling firing Garands made it sound like popcorn popping down in the pits.
L.W.
At least there was the opportunity to experience how you could (very roughly) estimate the range and direction from which the shots were coming, from the “thump” which comes after the “crack”.
We would not only work the frames up and down for the deliberate and rapid serials, and mark and patch, but also hold targets on sticks for snap and movers. The movers were the worst: holding up a plywood fig. 11 nailed to a length of 2”x1”, shuffling in a conga line along the trench, and showered with splinters and the odd nail whenever someone hit the target in the midline. Still, everyone had to take a turn.
