Weapon handling is one of the topics which is taught in CFLRS. It's no secret and that's why I'm writing about it. Everyone could search to see C7A2 is the official rifle of Canadian Armed Forces. So I'm not revealing any secret in this post. The subject starts with a little theory about the rifle and it's components. In order not to reveal any details, as might be a problem, I'm just going to say that everything that a soldier must know to be able to use their rifle safely and efficiently, is taught. Anything from cleaning, assembling, disassembling, you name it.
The problem is, similar to other topics in the school, that the instructors want to finish everything quickly and make you a sharpshooter as fast as possible! There's a little exaggeration into this but they rush you and that's where my problem starts. There was this pig that did nothing but swearing and yelling! This asshole even crossed the line as much as saying that he hated a specific person in the group! Fortunately we saw that motherfucker psycho never again! That piece of shit deserved to be hit in the chin with the rifle butt but I drop it here!
Anyways the test day reached and my problems emerged! The main one was that I forgot a number or only one step and that made the whole thing messy! I failed the first test when I had a problem with the procedure which fixes a jam in chamber. It's a logical procedure but my mind was just absent at the time. I would forgot things without knowing! I then was given the second chance and that one was messed up too! This one was due to forgetting a safety step which is required to make sure that the rifle is safe and no round is left inside. As CAF wants its recruits succeed, I was given the third chance and this time I did it but it was very nerve racking! I was sweating the whole time and I don't think it was because of nervousness only. I had the heavy tactical vest on and had to move continuously.
We were also given the chance to shot rifles in a simulator. The first time I was horrible! The aim was to have five shots close together and prove accuracy. In order to do that you need to aim, inhale, exhale while pulling the trigger gently, pulling with a little more force, without jerking it, and pulling completely, hold it for two seconds and let it go. The whole process should not be more than a few seconds. The longer you hold the rifle toward the target, the more tired you get and you lose your concentration.
I took the above process in to consideration and when we went to the simulator for the second time, I used that in prone, standing, sitting and kneeling position and my results was much better. The most difficult position is standing, of course, because you don't have support. One of the instructors had a very good advice for us: Look over your sight and study your target quickly, get down and look through the sight, quickly apply the procedure. Come up for a rest and repeat the same if required.
Then my next chance would have been shooting live rounds in Farnham but because I had messed up and was kicked out of the platoon, I missed that chance. However I have to mention that I later was taken there and had to do everything else but shooting! This will be seen in separate posts. Now that I have received my licence for safely using firearm, I hope I get a chance soon to try a shooting club of course when I settle down!
(Photo: A line of Canadian soldiers are practicing rifle shooting in winter conditions using their mitts. Looks like Kananaskis to me)
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