Was Oswald capable of hitting his target?

Oswald's introduction to guns seemed to start when he joined the US Marine Corps in 1956. There doesn't appear to be any records that he was a gun enthusiast before that. The three grades in rifle competency in the marines are (from best to worst) expert rifleman, sharpshooter and marksman. Oswald just qualified as a sharpshooter in 1956, and towards the end of his marine career in 1959 had dropped to the 'marksman' rank. It should be remembered that all these ranks are achieved by marines that train with their rifle continuously, know their rifle intimately and sight their rifles prior to being graded. After Oswald left the marines in 1959 there is no evidence to suggest that he joined gun clubs or attended firing ranges to maintain his level of rifle competence, at least not in the US, there maybe some evidence that he did attend fire practice in Russia. Therefore it is difficult to see how he could have fired the two shots that found their targets in November 1963 with a hastily assembled, non-sighted rifle.

The rifle that Oswald knew, had learned to shoot with, trained with and was graded on over his marine career was an M1 Garand. Why would Oswald purchase a Mannlicher Carcano? This was known at the time to be an inferior, non-reliable rifle, perhaps one of the worst ever manufactured rifles. Just as many people testified at the time of the Warren Report that Oswald was not a competent shot, including marine colleagues Nelson Delgado, Sherman Cooley, and James R. Persons, many people over the years have looked closely at the setup and concluded that those shots were even too difficult for expert rifleman to make. Craig Roberts, a US marine sniper, who wrote Kill Zone: A Sniper Looks at Dealey Plaza in 1994 is one such person and he sees serious errors of judgement with Oswald's choice of rifle as well as sniping position.

Conclusion
It's unlikely Oswald was capable of shooting Kennedy in 1963.

• The wrong weapon was used.
• The wrong sniper location was chosen.
• Oswald, the alleged assassin, hadn't the ability to hit his target.