"No More 'Where's Your Shell Casing?' Tension... Obligation to Return Casings After Shooting Removed [Yang Nakgyu's Defence Club]"

From now on, military personnel will be freed from the obligation to return spent cartridges during shooting training. Until now, they had to return as many spent cartridges as live rounds. Failure to do so was misunderstood as smuggling live ammunition. However, now they only need to return the cartridges they have actually collected. According to military officials on the 7th, the Army plans to relax the part of the 'Army Ammunition Regulations' that states '100% of spent cartridges must be collected and returned' to 'return the collected spent cartridges.'

On the 6th, soldiers from the Reconnaissance Battalion of the 5th Army Division are shooting without brass catchers at the Geomseonggol Shooting Range in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi-do. (Photo by Defense Daily)

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Until now, soldiers had to attach cumbersome cartridge catchers to their rifles to collect spent cartridges. Even then, if cartridges were lost, training was completely halted and training time was extended until the cartridges were found. Because of this, soldiers felt a significant burden in collecting spent cartridges. Once the regulation is revised, military personnel will conduct shooting training without attaching cartridge catchers to their rifles.

To revise the regulation, the Army will pilot the change by next month in units under the Special Warfare Command, special forces units of all corps, and reconnaissance battalions of frontline divisions. During the pilot period, operational performance will be reviewed to identify safety measures and other improvements, and expansion of the application will be considered. However, even if the regulation is revised, it will not apply to recruit training and mobilization training due to the continued risk of firearm accidents.

An Army official said, "We are pushing for the regulation revision to prevent disruptions to training and unnecessary effort," adding, "This improvement is intended as a measure to cultivate units and combatants capable of fighting and winning against the enemy."

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