I just taught the Army to shoot... sort of.
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:31 pm
Ok, so I have literally got back from the rifle range and I thought I'd share.
Today my club was down range blatting off rounds at 300 yards. We were sharing the range-complex with the Territorial Army. My club was approached by one of their sergeants and one private who was probably about my age.
This was just after one detail had finished and the target-pullers had just swapped over. During the break we got chatting to the NCO and squaddie. They had come over to see what he had.
Turns out they were interested in mil-surp. I let them have a look at my No1 MkIII - the seageant took it and had a look at it. What amazed me was that he had no idea how the iron-sights were adjusted and I had to explain what a magazine cut-off was, and what the intended purpose was.
I asked the two if they wanted a go with my No1 and G98 Mauser - both of them clearly hadn't expected to shoot any of them and jumped at the chance.
The NCO was very interested in the No1, and kept asking question about it - he kept calling the iron-sights "pistol" sights, which I guess makes sense as the only iron-sights they play with are on pistols.
I felt like a bit of a prat because how do you turn to a sergeant and ask "do you know how to use iron-sights?" He enjoyed the No1, but preferred the G98, even though he didn't hit the target with it
It felt so odd teaching a sergeant of the Army how to shoot a rifle, I don't know what I was expecting, but something in me told me that I shouldn't have to, in fact, he can probably teach me. But I guess, if you've shot nothing but SA80s then a WWI bolt-action will be a very strange beast. The good news, though, was that they knew how to work a bolt action.
The private I had to coach as he had never fired with iron-sights at all. I think the recoil of the .303 and the 7.92mm took him by surprise.
But they both had huge grins on their faces and the sergeant said that he would speak to his CO when he gets back and will see if their unit can come down and bring their SA80A2s for us to try... and they can try our .303s :lol:
Anyway, thought I'd share.
Today my club was down range blatting off rounds at 300 yards. We were sharing the range-complex with the Territorial Army. My club was approached by one of their sergeants and one private who was probably about my age.
This was just after one detail had finished and the target-pullers had just swapped over. During the break we got chatting to the NCO and squaddie. They had come over to see what he had.
Turns out they were interested in mil-surp. I let them have a look at my No1 MkIII - the seageant took it and had a look at it. What amazed me was that he had no idea how the iron-sights were adjusted and I had to explain what a magazine cut-off was, and what the intended purpose was.
I asked the two if they wanted a go with my No1 and G98 Mauser - both of them clearly hadn't expected to shoot any of them and jumped at the chance.
The NCO was very interested in the No1, and kept asking question about it - he kept calling the iron-sights "pistol" sights, which I guess makes sense as the only iron-sights they play with are on pistols.
I felt like a bit of a prat because how do you turn to a sergeant and ask "do you know how to use iron-sights?" He enjoyed the No1, but preferred the G98, even though he didn't hit the target with it
It felt so odd teaching a sergeant of the Army how to shoot a rifle, I don't know what I was expecting, but something in me told me that I shouldn't have to, in fact, he can probably teach me. But I guess, if you've shot nothing but SA80s then a WWI bolt-action will be a very strange beast. The good news, though, was that they knew how to work a bolt action.
The private I had to coach as he had never fired with iron-sights at all. I think the recoil of the .303 and the 7.92mm took him by surprise.
But they both had huge grins on their faces and the sergeant said that he would speak to his CO when he gets back and will see if their unit can come down and bring their SA80A2s for us to try... and they can try our .303s :lol:
Anyway, thought I'd share.
