In the British Army we followed the same covention as Gunny Bob says ie "Load" which equalled snapping a loaded mag into the magazine well, or putting a belt into the GPMG, "Make Ready" which equalled cocking the weapon, putting the safety catch on, adjusting the sights to the correct range and gerneally getting ready to fire...This last command could be replaced with a simple target/range designation order on the understanding that if a target was being designated, you automatically cocked the weapon ect...



Other commands were "Unload" and the "Make Safe" which was infact a complete "unload" followed by a "load" so the soldier ended up with a charged mag on his weapon but the chamber empty....



Trying to remember what the correct procedure was for fix bayonets...I know it could be given as a seperate order, but I certain circumstances I think it could also be part of the "Make Ready"



Regards



Pete

In regards to detachable magazine rifles, lock and load meant:

Lock: a full magazine into the rifle.

Load: release the bolt, loading the first round into the chamber.

The US Marine Corps, as Gunny Bob already pointed out, does not use those commands any longer. As the Gunny states, the USMC commands are "Load" and "Make Ready". I do not know if the US Army uses the same commands as the Marines.

Load and make ready are also the commands used in the Infantry Trophy Match (rattle battle).

For NRA highpower matches, the commands are different since the bolt is kept open until the shooter is in position during the rapid fire stages. The sequance goes like this:

"On the line, with two rounds, load" (magazine inserted, bolt left open)

"Ready on the right"

"Ready on the left"

"The firing line is ready"

"You may commence fire when your target appears"

As the targets rise from the pits, shooters drop to sitting or prone (depending on the stage) from standing, close the bolt, empty the first magazine of two rounds, reload, and shoot the second magazine containing eight rounds.

And when we are done shooting the commands are "Unload" and "Show Clear".

Go figure.

Bob

The army is currently into codewords. They use a color code instead of issuing instructions.

For a while the Marine Corps used, and still does to some extent, "Conditions". These went from "Condition 4" where one's weapon was fully unloaded and on safe to "Condition 1" where one's weapon was fully loaded and on safe.



Since Condition 2 only applys to the M1911A1 (IIRC) it can be a little confusing, but we still go over the conditions during each Safety Brief and instruct our Marines to "Make a Condition 4 weapon" before leaving the firing line or exiting the range to the staging area.



Personally I think that a weapon is either ready to be used, "Condition 1" or it's a piece of dead weight.



Bob

Personally I think that a weapon is either ready to be used, "Condition 1" or it's a piece of dead weight.

Bob

Ditto!

eldeguello, your question is a very good one. In order to answer it, I have to explain a bit about NRA highpower rifle.

There are two rifle categories or classes: service rifle and match rifle.

Service rifle is STRICTLY these three rifles: the M1, the M14 (or its civilian equivalents), and the M16A2 (or its civilian equivalents). No other variant of the M16 is currently authorized by NRA (or CMP) rules. No M4 carbines, no flattops, no early M16s. There are very stricly limited external modifications allowed (mostly dealing with the sights), but anything goes inside, as long as you keep the caliber as issued. The external appearance of the rifle must remain "as issued" with the exception of the very limited external mods listed in the rule book.

Match rifle is everything else. Foreign military rifles, as well as US military rifles earlier than the Garand are included here. Also, pure target rifles, either based on the AR15 or on conventional bolt actions, fall under the match rifle class. These match rifles have very expensive precision aperture sights front and rear, along with a variety of calibers, barrel lenghts, adjustable stocks and fore ends, ad infinitum.

Now, to your question.

Since the M1 is included in the service rifle class and it is forced by design to load 2 and 8 for the rapid fire strings, the M14 and M16 shooters are forced to do so in order to keep parity within class.

In the match rifle class, it depends. The traditional match rifle, based on a Remington 700 or Winchester 70 reloads with a 5 round stripper clip. Shooters using these rifles have to shoot five and reload with five more. Shooters using AR-15 based match rifles, or the new wave of detachable magazine bolt action rifles like the TUBB 2000 can either shoot 2 and 8 or 5 and 5.