Marine officials have released details of this year's inter-service rifle competition to be held this summer in Virginia.

The annual competition — open to Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen — has been held since 1961 and gives victors bragging rights as the best precision marksmen in the US military.

Competitors have until June 24 to register for the 54th Annual Inter-service Rifle Championship via the Civilian Marksmanship Program's website at www.ODCMP.com, according to Marine administrative message 218/15, released in early May.

The multi-day competition, hosted by Weapons Training Battalion at the Calvin A. Lloyd Rand Complex aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, will kick off with a ​team captains meeting on June 23. The first ceremonial shot will ring out the following day. Competitive matches will begin June 25 at 7:30 a.m., and run through July 1, when champions will receive awards at a formal evening banquet.

Last year, Marines took home first place in five of 15 individual and team events.

The matches primarily focus on Olympic-style precision shooting, which tests marksmanship fundamentals. It is not the three-gun-style competition popularized among civilian shooters and adopted by the Marine Corps in recent years as a way to encourage development of combat skills like shooting on the move and engaging moving targets quickly.

The inter-service match includes events like the 1,000-yard team match, pushing trigger-pullers to the extremes of precision shooting.

In the Marine Corps' case, the service is primarily — though not exclusively — represented by members of it shooting teams. Those are Marines who are identified through local base or command competitions and invited to qualify for the top Quantico-based teams, where they can spend up to three years before returning to the fleet.

Those include rifle, pistol and combat shooting teams.

Those include e Quantico teams include a rifle team, pistol team and combat shooting teams.
"The Marine Corps shooting teams are the primary source of Marines who represent the Marine Corps in inter-service, national, and international competitions," reads Marine Corps Order 3591.2J which provides guidance for the service's small arms marksmanship competitions. "Members of Marksmanship Training Unit (MTU), Marine Corps Development and Education Command, Quantico, Virginia form the nucleus of the Marine Corps shooting teams which are augmented, as required, on a temporary basis by Marines who demonstrate outstanding abilities during the annual Competition-in-Arms Program and by qualified Marines who make application for selection to the teams"
Share:
In Other News
Load More