Went to our range today to watch National Guardsmen shoot machine guns. The Guardsmen told me they were the current model used in the Middle East. 308 cal. I ask him why the targets were only 10 yds. away? He said it saves time replacing the targets. I said does that improve your long range accuracy? He said they just make the targets smaller when they shoot from that range. Was he pulling my leg? Shooting from 10 yds. seems easier than 200 yds.

With a machine gun close is good enough.
But at 10 yds I wouldn't think that you could get too much information about how or where you were shooting. Sounds like the Sgt. was just a little soft on the men.

My .02
muck

The standard at one time, not long ago was 1,000 inches on a great big target (3x5 feet maybe) with lots of little bad guys printed on it.

It was largely to practice utilizing the T&E to get rounds on target and to teach the respective parties to work as a team.

Ten yards sounds pretty silly though ...

Military intelligence?

They should just let them use a video game!

Maybe the Guardsmen were simply being indoctrinated in the operation of the MGs ??

There is always a reason behind every military undertaking, right.

Ray