WEEK 4 (May 30 – Jun 5) – Rifles & Grenades

 We started live firing on the ranges this week, all of us having passed our weapons handling assessment last week. We spent a lot of time at the ranges, live and simulated (DCCT). We did practice sessions at the simulated range (DCCT it’s called) before doing the live firing session the next day. So last Saturday we simulated what we would be doing on Monday. On Monday we got our webbing and day sacks all packed and then headed to the armoury to pick up our weapons. We took a coach to a range about 30 min away.  

Monday was one of my favourite days being here. We practised firing from the prone position, which is lying down on your front with the rifle propped up by having your elbows on the ground. It’s one of the most stable positions and therefore the easiest to fire accurately. I didn’t do too bad considering it was the first time having fired the rifle. We shot from 25 metres in prone unsupported and prone supported (magazine of the rifle rests on the ground) and the corporal would come over to each of our targets and measure our groupings. Groupings are the spread between the 5 shots. My best grouping was 24 mm and worst was 80 mm that day. We go in groups or “details” and when it was my detail’s turn to shoot, it started pouring it down with rain so we got really wet and muddy. As soon as we were finished, it stopped and the sun came out. Made the experience even better in my opinion. 

We’ve been taught “marksmanship principles” to be able to shoot accurately, which are fairly straightforward and summed up are: get a good stable position, point the weapon at the target, use the sight to aim, release the shot and follow through (keep the trigger pressed for a second after).  One of the keys to shooting well is keeping relaxed and breathing evenly. When you breathe, the sight moves up and down so the way to do it is to take 2 breaths and on the second exhale, the sight should land on the target which is when you release the shot. If you do that consistently, the shots should land close together.  

Eventually we’ll have a test nearer the end of the course involving us shooting from different positions (prone, sitting, kneeling, standing, each unsupported & supported) and we’ll have to achieve a certain accuracy from different ranges, from up to 300 m I believe. As a medic, I don’t think accuracy is as important to my training since medics don’t use weapons as much as, say, infantry. But I still want to achieve marksmanship status which earns you a badge for being a good shot. 

The corporals seem more easy-going on the ranges, despite being strict with the safety standards. They make a lot more jokes and everyone gets to laugh a bit more. I’ve realized that a lot of the time when the corporals are yelling or being strict, they aren’t actually angry, it’s more that they’re either impatient and trying to get us to move quicker or they just get a kick out of seeing us squirm. Seeing the situation from their point of view makes everything that goes on more entertaining. There was one instance in which they told us to get into ranks and everyone bustled about trying to get into straight lines of threes, but for some reason everyone was confused and stood about, so they made us all do press ups for taking too long. We got up again and still, there were people standing off to the side and others trying to squeeze into the middle so again, we had to get into press up position and do as many as we were told. “LOWER! RAISE! LOWER! RAISE! HOLD!” We got up again and STILL, there were people making extra lines and going to the wrong side so, for a THIRD time, we had to get into press up position. From their point of view, we’re just a load of numpties scrambling to do a simple task who still couldn’t do it properly after 3 times (which if you think about it is pretty funny). It was like watching a comedy. Some of the recruits still seem to be legitimately scared of the corporals and get really nervous in front of them. But others are starting to relax more because we can see that it’s all just a game we’re playing. 

After shooting, we were supposed to pick up all the brass casings from the rounds we had fired but since the captain and corporals found 5 left over, they “punished” us by having us eat for 5 straight minutes, best effort, out of a big container full of our lunch which was rice and sauce, which I guess needed to be empty before taking it back. So, there were 15 in a line to do the total 5 min between them, each scoffing it down with their spoon for 20 seconds eating as much as they could, while the rest of us cheered them on and the corporals laughing. Looked like a bunch of animals at a feeding trough. It was really funny. 

On Tuesday we learned how to throw grenades. We did the drills with practice grenades that are the same size and weight as real grenades, just different a different colour and don’t explode. The procedure for doing that is to take off the safety clip, unhook the pin, put your finger through the pin ring, and wait for the instruction to throw it. Then pull out the pin, yell “GRENADE,” throw it at the target, waiting to see that it’s landed, then throw yourself on the ground with your face buried. Wait until it explodes (3-4 seconds) and as soon as it does, unsling your rifle from your back and charge the enemy position firing at them and bayoneting them, etc. until they’re all dead. All we had to do in this case was pretend to do that last bit.  

I was pretty bad at throwing the grenade. Grenades have an effective range of a 5 m radius protected (target is wearing armour) and 20 m unprotected, so we threw from a range of 25 m and had to get the grenade in the 5 m radius. When we were tested on it at the range on Wednesday, I had to do it 3 times to get it inside the tape but eventually got it! 

This past week was the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, so there were some celebrations going on, but all we participated in was a barbeque in a space by our block. The corporals however had a lot of events to attend so we had quite a bit of time to ourselves in the block. So it was more of a quiet week, especially towards the end. This coming week we have an exercise, Battle Camp 1, where we are going to learn some tactical manoeuvres and how to set up what’s called a harbour area, which is essentially an area with an HQ in the middle where the officers hang out and all the rest of us defending the outside perimeter. It’s all outside in the woods and it looks as though it will be raining most of the week! All part of the experience.