CCF Army Range Day 鈥� Sunday 12th May
Read on as Aaron P. (Divs) shares his experience of the recent CCF range day.
Writes Aaron P. (Divs)
At 06.30hrs, I arrived at the CCF Block. I retrieved a rifle and conducted Normal Safety Precautions (NSP's) - this is the process where you make sure the rifle is safe. Afterwards, I put on my sling and practiced my stoppage drills. This is so if the gun jams when I'm on the range, I will be able to fix the issue.
Before leaving school, I had to oil my rifle. Putting on the right amount of oil onto the gun reduces the likelihood of stoppages. Then, I moved all my belongings into my day sack. After this we departed to Ash Ranges, set to arrive for about 08.00hrs. On arrival, we received a safety brief about the
day, and this was later followed with an inspection of our weapon systems. We were then split into four groups and we were tasked with filling up magazines with the live rounds we were going to shoot. I was in Group 4. At around 09.30hrs the first group went off to shoot their magazines of twenty grouping rounds, followed by five rounds to confirm the sight adjustment.
When the time came for our group to shoot, we put on our cadet vests and stored our magazines in our vests. At the Range, we fired our zeroing rounds in our own time. On completion of the shoot, we went down the range to look at our target and analyse the fall of shot. Then, we had to patch up the holes in the targets using glue and paper. After that, we went back to our Troop Shelter to revise firing positions and stoppage drills.
Later, on our next shoot, we had to fire our rounds in a 鈥榮nap shoot鈥�, which is one round a second, simulating rapid fire. Next, we fired a magazine of twenty one rounds from the prone position. Then, we fired our last sixteen in a 鈥榝ire trench鈥� (you can see in the photo). Fortunately, over the whole day I did not get any stoppages. After the shoot, we retrieved the brass casings and conducted a final NSP and safety declarations, before returning to school. Finally, we cleaned our rifles and found out the scores from our shoots and received our GP Rifle badge. The day ended at 18.30hrs.