I used to get paid to shoot:
I started with the FN FAL or as we called it the FNC1 in 7.62 NATO caliber.
Kicked a bit and kinda heavy to shluff around. I loved the change to the M16 clone.
Our 5.56 NATO rifle was made by Colt Diemaco and took advantage of lessons learned with the US M16.
Heavy barrel won't bent in bayonet work, fast twist, plastic mags that work as a monopod.
It was a tack driver.
Later we got scopes, 3.5x fully sealed and externally adjusted.
I continued to shoot with iron sights at the competitions because our testing revealed we could out-shoot the scopes. The scopes had problems. We (my team) continued to win trophies. After a couple years we were ordered (under protest) to use the scopes and did so with elastic bands wrapped around them. We cleaned up again. They put a bunch of us on a scope development project with the engineers to find the problems. The big one was a wave washer used to hold zero would rotate and lose tension, found and solved.
No elastic band needed.
This is a good buddy of mine with my Winchester M70 lightweight carbine 30-06
First new rifle I ever bought. My buddy has since died of cancer and I believe the deer did not fare well either. Paul shot this deer on his 3rd day of hunting ever. I taught him to shoot, but he had a knack. Dead centered the throat from the front just above the sternum. Not one lick of meat damaged! Awesome.
I just plain loved shooting, maybe even more than biking cuz I was pretty good at it.
I used to take this lightweight rifle to benchrest competitions. You know? $10,000 20 lbs bullseye rifles?
They'd laugh at me walking into the match. I never won a match, but I never came near last either.
I usually came mid-field and often 4th or 5th in a 20-25 shooter field.
Paul never hunted again. Said it was too easy...
What I shot in the military was "Service Rifle".
There was a civilian comparable competition, DCRA Service Rifle, that allowed any infantry rifle.
Most guys shot accurized AR15 or similar 5.56.
Were I was paid to shoot 1000s of rounds in competitions, it didn't feel fair to compete in the civilian matches with a rifle similar to what I worked with. I'd go to the matches with a WWII Lee-Enfield Mk4. I had to do the rapid fires and rundowns and shoot up to 500m with it. Loved that old piece of firewood. Never won a trophy with it but had a lot of fun and came pretty darned close.
It was an awesome career, got to shoot a lot of oddball stuff like this British L85/SA80:
Got to shoot Steyr AUG, AK47, and a bunch of other stuff including prototype sniper rifles and every machine gun in NATO. And they paid me! I woulda done it for free and slept outdoors to do this. Oh ya, I did have to sleep outdoors...
I raised my kids right, rednecks all.
The buttstock on the rifle I am shooting is short because it was cut off so the kids could use it when they were 4!
So, you 'Merikans don't have the monopoly on rednecks. I've met them all over the world!
Steve
