You need DA Form 7821, and this page gets you to the file and through it. Start with what the form is: PISTOL VALIDATION SCORECARD, used to pistol validation scorecard. Check next that you have the right version — the edition dated 07/01/2019 is the one published here, and its status is ACTIVE. Then look at the size before you begin, because 1 page(s) and roughly 170 fields tell you how long this will take.
Then work out your role. If the entries describe you, you fill them in and someone in the administrative section checks the result. If you handle records for others, you enter what they supply and pass the form along. In both cases the same two references govern you: T2COM maintains the form, and TC 3-20.40 sets out the trigger for using it and the route it takes. Read that directive before you start when anything about your case is unusual.
Begin with the first block and follow the printed order. You will enter your name first, exactly as your official records show it, followed by your identification number, your organisation, and the date of preparation. Resist the urge to jump to the substantive blocks and return to the header later. Those first entries are the index for the whole record, and an error there costs you the ability to retrieve it.
Once you reach the body of the form, move between fields with the tab key rather than the mouse; it follows the order the form was built in and you are less likely to skip a box. Click check boxes and option buttons directly. When you meet a group of options where only one can apply, notice that selecting a second one clears the first — that is intended, not a fault. Watch your longer answers as you type them. A single-line field does not wrap, so text that runs past the edge stays visible on screen and then prints cut off. When you see that happening, stop and move the text to the remarks area or a continuation instead of squeezing it in. If a field does not apply to you, mark it rather than leaving it empty; a blank space tells the reviewer nothing about whether you considered the question or missed it.
Leave the signature until everything else is done. Sign by hand or by an approved electronic means, and remember that a form without a signature is a draft, however complete the entries. Where a second and third signature are required — reviewing official, approving authority, witness — go in the order the blocks appear, and each signer dates the form on the day of signing. Then go back to the top and read what you wrote. Look first for a mandatory field you passed over, then for transposed digits in your identification number, then for a date with the day and month inverted. If you started from a file you had used before, look also for entries left from that earlier use; nothing removes them but you.
At some point while filling the form you will meet a Privacy Act statement, and you should read it when you reach it rather than after you finish. It tells you who is authorised to collect the information, what it will be used for, who else may see it, and whether you are obliged to answer or may decline. Once you have entered your details, treat the file accordingly: it now holds personal information about you, so store it and send it the way your office handles such records.
Download the form
Then choose a file to download. What you will see offered is PDF, and the only question you need to answer is whether you are typing or writing. Type, and you want the fillable pdf, where the entry areas respond to your keyboard. Write, and you want the printable pdf, which you print empty and complete with a pen. The layout does not change between them, so pick whichever fits how you plan to work today.
Once the file is on your machine, open it deliberately. A pdf will usually launch in your browser, which reads well enough but does not always hold what you type; certain viewers display the fields and then discard your entries. Save the download to a folder, open it from there in a dedicated reader, and test one field and one save before you commit to filling the whole thing.
Finally, note what the download costs you: nothing. You do not create an account, you do not enter an email address, and the file you receive is the published document with nothing added to it.
What the form asks for
- COM_SIGN
- ContentArea1
- DATE
- DODID
- EQUIP_OPT
- HIT_T1_1
- HIT_T1_10
- HIT_T1_2
- HIT_T1_3
- HIT_T1_4
- HIT_T1_5
- HIT_T1_6
- HIT_T1_7
- HIT_T1_8
- HIT_T1_9
- HIT_T2_11
- HIT_T2_12
- HIT_T2_13
- HIT_T2_14
- HIT_T2_15
- HIT_T2_16
- HIT_T2_17
- HIT_T2_18
- HIT_T2_19
Once you have signed, route the form. The prescribing directive names the destination: an office, your unit administrative channel, or your personal file, according to the case. Make yourself a copy first, because you will not get the original back. After that, retention is out of your hands — the applicable records schedule fixes how long the document is kept, whatever the practice in a particular office.
When another document has to travel with this one, find it by series and number. Forms in the DA series sharing a proponent or a governing directive are commonly used in combination, and anything cited on the face of your form generally goes with it. Assemble continuation sheets, covers and transmittals before you send the package rather than in response to a query.
Check the edition date again the next time you reach for this form. Editions change when the proponent revises the content, and a copy you saved months ago may no longer be current — compare the date printed on your file against the edition in force before you type anything into it. What you do not need to do is redo work already finished: a form you completed and submitted under an earlier edition stays as it is.
Read this before you go. The file you download is a reproduction of a published Department of the Army document, offered as it was published. We are an independent site with no connection to the Department of the Army and no authority to issue anything, and we make no statement about whether your completed form will be accepted anywhere. Treat what you read here as information, not legal advice. Take real questions — about an entry, a requirement, or your eligibility — to T2COM or to your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 7821?
- PISTOL VALIDATION SCORECARD
- Which edition is current?
- 07/01/2019
- Who is responsible for this form?
- T2COM
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF