Official Instructions Available here.

So people have been tossing grenades these last couple weeks. As an experienced grenadier I thought I’d throw a few pointers out there. For starters most people assume the grenade in use today is the old-school pineapple grenade that looks like this:

That is incorrect. Before I joined the Marines I also held that false assumption. The military stopped using the pineapple grenade because they found that Soldiers and Marines could actually throw them further if they were shaped like a baseball. The US Military transitioned over to this grenade:

Now that we have that common misconception out of the way we can move on to more important aspects of the “grenade toss”. Now, once you have the grenade you cannot just pull the pin and toss it. You need to be able to throw it accurately and ensure that goes far enough out to hit the intended target, but not too far so as to hit an unintended target thus creating a casualty.

Step 1 – Grip the grenade with your strong hand

Step 2 – Place weak hand over strong hand

Step 3 – Sweep the safety with weak hand

Step 4 – Twist and pull the pin with weak hand

Step 5 – Extend your weak hand out and establish a target

Step 6 – Rear back strong hand with grenade while still gripping trigger

Step 7 – Toss grenade, tuck, and take cover

If all this is executed properly then it should look like this

Now, that is the proper execution of a grenade toss performed by a professional. If you fail to follow these simple procedures then this could be the end result:

Fortunately, in the instance of that last video, there was someone present who knew the dangers of throwing the grenade and how to properly protect the individual who was inexperienced in it.

To end

Ensure you are able to throw the grenade far enough away to not get yourself or some unintended target hurt…ya know like a victim whose name will more than likely be made public because there are no such protections in a libel suit.

PZ’s original post can be read here.