shooting – Fooyah – Ian Parish

September 12 2021September 12 2021

Name Three Things That Shouldn’t Be In The Same Neighbourhood

Had a lovely day out in the “it turned out to be nicer than expected” weather for a cadet trip to Lydd to use the long ranges there. A long range is anything over 25m. I have my range conducting officer ticket for short ranges and would like to get my ticket for long ranges but, one day. Lydd Ranges is a base with lots of space for shooting things down on the Kent coast within the Romney Marshes site of special scientific interest. As you might expect there is a Danger Area which extends out into the sea. If you are thinking “What else could we put near here to ensure almost the perfect disaster” and if your answer is: an airport and a nuclear power station, then you are in for a treat.

The three things that I have circled are, from top to bottom, an airport, Lydd live firing ranges and a nuclear power station. I suppose it doesn’t get worse than that for potential danger. This is a funny end of the world, some unique habitats and plenty of open space. The fact that access is restricted a lot also means that the wildlife has the space to get on with it.

Serial 34 is a gallery range with manual targets. We had some firing practice from 100m where we zeroed the weapons and then did some firing from other positions from 100m and 200m. The wind was a bit much for newish cadets to have a go from further distances. We’d also want slightly better grouping sizes to be able to progress. If you double your distance then you double the size of your grouping [Theory Of A Group]. So, we’d be hoping for 100mm at 100m which would then lead to 200mm at 200m. Once you are beyond those sizes you aren’t really going to be hitting the target that much.

The morning was mostly cloudy with a little wind. In the afternoon the wind increased but the sun came out and so I have mildly weather affected skin on the parts of my body which were exposed – mainly my head. It feels OK about twelve hours later so I think I’ll be fine but I might look silly as I was wearing a baseball cap and so half my head is burnt along with a little rectangle where the cap size adjuster lives. Oh well.

This is communication number 1960. In keeping with recent tradition [not sure what happens when I get beyond the current year] here are some things that happened in that year as curated by me:

Humans descend to the lowest point on Earth.
12,000 dead after an earthquake in Morocco.
Blue Streak is cancelled in UK.
A U-2 is shot down over USSR.
Mauritania [the crappiest country you’ve not heard of] becomes independent from France.

June 17 2018

Home On The Range

Sometime recently I went to a series of ranges near the coast, pointing towards France. I was fortunate enough to have a go on the long range. In the picture below the targets are at 100m. We practised out to 300m. It was excellent.

If you look closely you can see the targets at 100m. Imagine the size of those out at 300m! I was allowed twenty five rounds and could choose when to shoot them. I had time at 100m, 200m and 300m. I needed a spotter for the first few shots as the weapon wasn’t zeroed to my hold and position. The 100m targets were easy. I took five shots at them and hit 4. I wanted to try ten rounds each at the longer distances.

At the 200m I was aiming correctly but hitting elsewhere (weapon zeroing) and so once I had my spotter I hit the target five out of the ten shots in total. I waited eagerly for the 300m targets, these were 6 second exposures.

Again, I needed spotting for the first few and then after that I hit five out of the ten shots. I am bloody impressed with this and happy. When I thought it was over I checked and I still had one round left. I waited for the target to raise and when I thought there were going to be no more I rested my position. It was at that point the target popped up and I took aim and fired the shot. I can’t remember if I hit that one.

When I spoke to the console operator afterwards he said he was watching me and waiting for me to drop my aim before putting up the last exposure so I was tricked, kinda.

It was a good day and I look forward to the next one.

July 21 2014July 22 2014

L98A1 Shooting Record

Last communication on shooting for a while. Here continues my internetification of my Form 3822 Record Of Service book.

The L98A1 Cadet rifle was introduced towards the end of the 1980s as a replacement for the SLR after the British military moved to using the SA80 rifle. I passed my training programme on 31 March 1989. My shooting record is as follows:

31 March 1989 – 15 rounds
16 August 1989 – 50 rounds [RAF Marksman achieved]
? December 1989 – ? rounds
17 March 1990 – ? rounds [RAF Marksman achieved]

Just reading the last entry I can vaguely remember being on a coach travelling to wherever the shooting was and celebrating my 18th birthday. I can remember cake and Alan buying me some suspenders. It was sunny. That is pretty much the sum of my memories of that day!

While at RAF Brize Norton camp I had 20 rounds on the L98A2 Cadet Rifle. I managed to get a pretty good grouping, considering I hadn’t shot a live gun in over 20 years.

July 21 2014July 22 2014

7.62 SL Rifle Shooting

We are about half way through my record of service book! There’s some flying and a few band engagements to go! However, this communication concerns my relationship with the SLR.

The SLR felt like a proper gun. It was quite heavy, loud when fired and had a reasonable kick. Unlike the single shot No. 4 .303 rifle [which was bolt action] this one would load the next round automatically, hence: Self Loading Rifle. The cadet version of the weapon system was fixed to be semi-automatic only. Before I could fire this weapon I had to pass a safety test and learn how to strip the weapon down and clean it. I always enjoyed firing this weapon even if the kick still hurt quite a bit.

25 August 1987 – 20 rounds
27 August 1987 – 70 rounds
10 October 1987 – 50 rounds
12 April 1988 – 25 rounds
28 July 1988 – 10 rounds

After this date the SLR was replaced with the L98A1 rifle.

July 21 2014July 22 2014

.303 Rifle Shooting Courses

This communication deals with the times I shot a full bore rifle. I am pretty sure the rifle used was a Lee-Enfield No. 4 rifle with a .303 round size. Before cadets were allowed to fire this weapon they had to be signed off in the 3822 by the CO saying that they were large and strong enough to handle the weapon.

I can remember that I had a couple of goes at firing this beast and I hated it. It was just after my 14th birthday and the recoil hurt, a lot.

22 March 1986 – 32 rounds

For more communications about my record of service, click here.

July 20 2014July 22 2014

.22 Rifle Shooting Courses

What else am I going to do on a Sunday evening apart from write a couple of communications? Especially when Gold TV are broadcasting the Monty Python show from the O2. I’m not watching that because when they started to sing the Penis Song the television channel censored some of the words! I was so annoyed with this that I watched Veep, The 100 and am now writing this instead of watching the Pythons. To be honest I can listen to the Penis Song anytime.

I get a little confused over the next few entries in my Form 3822. The could be courses or they could be competitions. I know that I shot quite a bit with the Squadron and I enjoyed it thoroughly. If you want to see more about experiences of a teenager in the late 80s then click here.

There now follows a list of .22 rifle shooting events I attended and took part. All of these were on 25 yard ranges.

31 July 1986
5 December 1986
20 February 1987 [Mark Sykes Trophy competition]
20 March 1987 [Mark Sykes Trophy competition]
22 May 1987 [ATC Marksman achieved]
3 July 1987
26 August 1987 [ATC Marksman achieved]
27 August 1987
28 August 1987
14 November 1987
28 November 1987
28 February 1988 [Falklands Competition]
29 April 1988 [ATC Marksman achieved]
21 June 1988
22 July 1988 [ATC Marksman achieved]
26 July 1988
28 July 1988
1 December 1988
15 December 1988 [Battle of Britain Competition] 79/100 scored
3 July 1989 [Wing Field Day]
13 August 1989
29 December 1989 [ATC Marksman achieved]
11 February 1990

I was selected for the East Essex Wing Shooting Team one year but I couldn’t make the competition because I was on camp in Cyprus [or I may have been at a concert, I can’t quite remember].

July 11 2014July 22 2014

CCF Camp BZN

I spent a week at RAF Brize Norton recently with the Combined Cadet Force RAF Section from work. I had a great time but more importantly all of the cadets we took had a good time. We were very busy and it was extremely tiring but I got so much from it.

Here’s a list of things that we did (mostly because I can’t be bothered to compose prose for this):

5.56 shooting at the outdoor range. After over twenty years of not shooting a weapon I was very happy with my twenty shot grouping.
Grob Tutor air experience flying with 6 AEF at RAF Benson.
RAF Section Visits to:
- Air Traffic Control
- Fire
- Armoury
- JADTEU
- 47 Air Despatch
- Survival Equipment
- SERE
- Dog Handling
- DMTS
- Support Eng Flight
- XXIV Squadron
- Parachute Training School
DCCT – I managed to pass my RAF shooting test with a score of 65/75
Low Ropes
High Ropes
Laser Target Practice
Ten Pin Bowling

The Officers’ Mess was a delight and a wonderful building that overlooked the runway about half way along. My only problem was that the Friday of camp was the Officers’ Summer Ball and while my room overlooked the runway it also was directly above the bar and next to the funfair that was set up for the ball. That night I slept in the cadets billet as a supervisor rather than not sleep in my room in the mess.

Here’s a selection of photographs I took during the week. I can’t share some of the really cool stuff we saw because it’s covered by the OS Act.