"polo"?
 

Colonel Murph -

What means it to be called a "polo" in association with weaponry use?

Idea
 

Excuse me if I step in. Is it possible that you mean bolo? Back during the Spanish American War, the war continued in the Philippians while the Americans did the White Man?s Burden thing. We put down instructions in a very harsh way and it took quite a few years.

When new men joined the U.S. units they qualified with their rifles. If they failed to qualify they were said to only be worthy of using a bolo, a non-firearm, when in battle. Ever since then, probably around one hundred years, if a person fails to qualify with a firearm, he?s a bolo.

Now if some people are ?polo?, can?t wait to find out what that means. Murph?

Stay healthy,
Andy

Thanks Andy, I'm sure I got the spelling wrong, and that you got the meaning right... that would hev been the context of where I saw the word used in a thread on here in the last couple of days...

Thanks... interesting.

Andy's correct on the details. It's BOLO. You "Bolo'd" when you got too many "Maggies Drawers" indicating misses. Back in the "Old" days, we qualified on the KD or Known Distance range and shot at bullseye targets. Half of the unit would be on the firing line while the rest would be in the "Target Pits" (an 8 foot deep conrete ditch) under the targets. The targets we used were around 6 feet square for the 300 yard range and could be raised or lowered on a frame. After the line fired we would get the order to "Pull Targets" and would lower them to score them. We would put a white 4" disk mounted on a .30 cal. dowel through any holes in the black portion of the target and a white disk in any holes outside the black. The instructors would then be able to see (With binoculars) how many hits there were and where they hit. We knew that there were supposed to be 8 holes in the target because of the capacity of the M-1 clip so if there were only 6 holes in the target we would waive a large red flag back and fourth in front of the target, lower it and raise it up and waive again to indicate two misses. The flag was called "Maggies Drawers". Too many maggies drawers and you were considered a "BOLO".

Thanks Murph -

300 yards!!!! 300 freakin' YARDS! That is a lot of yards, I think we fired at 50 yards or thereabouts... makes me feel sorta juvenile :D

Working the target pits
 

Col. Murph's post brought back some memories!!!

I had to go dig through my storage shed!

I still have some of those scoring discs...black on one side and white on the other...in my range box. Still have some of the .30 caliber dowels used to "pin" them into the bullet holes.

Also found some of the old 300 yard and 600 yard "V" ring targets.

Do ya remember those, Col Murph?

The 600 yard bullseye (black) is about 39 inches across, but I'll tell ya what...at 600 yards, through an M1's sights, it's mighty little! Less than half of the WIDTH OF THE FRONT SIGHT BLADE!! That little dot "bounces" every time your heart beats. And the mirage makes it do the hootchie-kootchie!!
And if that little dot isn't exactly centered on top of that sight blade when the shot goes, you ain't gonna be in the black.

Also still have some rolls of target pasters. For those unfamiliar, they were gummed one-inch squares that came in rolls like stamps. Used 'em to patch the bullet holes. They came in black & white. Ya had to lick 'em to stick 'em and they tasted God-awful!

Hey, Col. Murph, do you remember that bore cleaning solvent they used to have? Came in little olive drab cans with a screw top. It was a black or dark brown liquid and it smelled like something died in it. But it was pretty good at getting rid of the damaging residue from corrosive-primed ammo.

Those were the days!

Rigger and Murph -

How many, in your memory, riflemen could score expert (or even sharpshooter) with an M-1 at 600 yards, or 300 for that matter?

Ah, the memories of the rifle range. Marines (1965) shot at 200, 300, and 500 yards, with the M-14. As a sniper, we warmed upped at 500 yards, and shot to 1,000 (with the aide of a scope). We called the "target pits" the "butts".

Sarge 65 -

How much did you hit in the red zone at 1000 yards (fer cryin' out loud!) :cl:

Scores
 

Mike,

Col. Murph will have to answer your question re Sharpshooter & Expert scores.

All my long range shooting with the M1 was in civilian matches.

We did, however, have a number of shooters who, with a National Match M1 and M72 Match ammo (or handloads) could keep all their shots in the 10 ring. The X ring (or the V ring) was the tie breaker.