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CF Combat Shooting Team takes home 13 medals
Bisley, UK – Thirteen shooters participate in Bisley International Shooting Competition 2009
Transcript
Canadian Army News Episode 365
Special Episode 25: Camp Bisley
Intro
Sgt Eric Gordon
Hi I’m Sgt Eric Gordon and welcome to this special episode of Army News.
Lt Nicholas Fysh
We have an excellent team; we have a very fit team. And we have excellent shots on top of that.
Cpl Jimmy Grondin
That’s your bread and butter that’s what they train for.
We beat them in the past, I’m very confident we’ll beat them again in the future.
Sgt Gordon
We’re here at camp Bisley to follow up on the CF shooting team during the international competition.
Maj Peter Cottrell
The Bisley competition is an annual competition. It began in 1860 on these grounds, before that it was run out of London, place called Woolidge. We came over here when the development of London began to expand out on the Woolidge side which had housing around it and are clearly the danger areas. So they came to a heath in Surrey here and decided the heath land, the area was ideal for rangers. Here the atmosphere here is a buzz from the next 6-8 week through the whole summer. All shooting disciplines take place here. And in the recent four to five years, we’ve aligned our matches and our competitions much more towards operational marksmanship. We also have it in its national context and that adds value to our training, we learn from each other, we pick up training tips from each other and we add that into our matches.
Lt Nicholas Fysh
This is the competition to come to. I’ve seen some of the best shots here than I’ve seen at any other competition.
Cpl Jimmy Grondin
Right now, we get the Omanies are here, Sultan of Oman army. They’re really hard to beat because they’re a professional team and their shooting ability’s really high. And beside them, we get the Brit’s team which are really good at those matches because that’s their bread and butter, that’s what they train for, moving target, FIBUA (Fighting In Built-Up Areas). They’re pretty hard to beat, but we beat them in the past. I’m pretty confident we’ll beat them again in the future.
Soundbite
In gate 11.
Maj Peter Cottrell
If they compete to the top hundred, which is the Army Hundred Cup, they will be in fourteen matches in four days. So we have a pretty intensive program and to that includes the night shoot, moving target shoot, the various close quarter matches and some longer distance. The emphasis is at now on positional shooting, snap firing and positions other than prone. And we found that that’s what we need to develop more techniques further. We do try to make it an area where you have to have an excellent shot to get here in the first place. That means the standard of our marksmanship at our competition, international and national, is very high, so winning it is a particular aculeate. I mean you have a Queen’s medal, so do we and the winner of the Queen’s medal is highly regarded and respected because to get through a reasonable competition , international, competing against 250 people, 14 matches in 4 days, it’s tough.
Maj Mike Archibald
The shooters for this year’s Canadian team worked on all of the different competitions we’ll be practicing here. And they also worked with coaches to improve their skills as shooters.
Sgt Sébastien Fréchette
And now, here are the personnel associated with our team
Introductions
Captain Gary Hallman. Major Mike Archibald, team captain. Team trainers: Linda Miller and Keith Cunningham. Non-commissioned officer in charge of team resources, Sgt Glen Park
Maj Mike Archibald
We have many shooters in the country and the thirteen here today are among the best. They competed in the CFSAC competition in Ottawa and were invited to participate in this year’s Bisley Competition.
Sgt Sébastien Fréchette
And the thirteen shooters composing the Canadian team: Sgt George Mckillaw, PO 1 Martin Cashin, Capt Shawn Gagnon, PO 2 Brad Browney, Cpl Jimmy Grondin, Cpl Devin Warner, MCpl Jonathan Richard, Pte Shawn Pélerin, Cpl Andy Chu, Cpl Dave Ferguson, MCpl Colin Ryan, Pte Jared Clarkson and Lt Nicholas Fysh.
Lt Nicholas Fysh
It’s a great feeling. When I saw my standing after September’s CFSAC, I was excited since it’s an honour to be part of such a prestigious team. Every international competition gives you a wonderful opportunity to improve. You get to meet members from other teams like the English or the Omani, for example, and you learn something new. Even more importantly, you participate in events that are different from those here. The shooting style is very different depending on where the competition takes place, whether it’s in Canada, Arkansas or the American competition, or Australia. You learn something new at each competition and you expand your repertoire. You become a better shooter and a better soldier.
Sgt Eric Gordon
Another part of the competition here at camp Bisley is the 500 metre dash toward the target called Henry White Head.
PO2 Brad Browne
It is a 500 metre run in three minutes, in full webbing weapons and kit as well as body armour total out-weight is about forty pounds. That’s followed by a five to one hundred metre run downhill with various shooting positions that you fire from.
Maj Mike Archibald
The stress that’s put on them in this case is to kind of simulate combat conditions where they are forced to exude a certain amount of energy. That 500 metre run will get them up and get their heart rate up and once their on the range they are to continue to keep that heart rate up by running from the 500 to the 400 to the 300 to the 200 and so on.
PO2 Brad Browne
It’s a very demanding match. You have between thirty to forty seconds to move in between each firing position and engage your target and not to mention running half a kilometre in full fighting order. You got the 500 metre run and you have 3 minutes to do this. Once you get to the 500 metre mount you got to keep going 100 metres and do your exposures, take your shots, so it’s really physically demanding.
Pte Shawn Pellerin
Breathing is probably the most important thing for this cause you have to keep your breathing so you can actually fire a steady shot. Cause if you don’t get the steady shot your going to lose shots and lose points and it not only affects you but also affects your team
PO2 Brad Browne
This is great fun. It’s challenging, it’s enjoyable. I’m here with fellow shooters, soldiers, sailors and airmen. It’s a means for improving myself as an individual and testing my self discipline.
Soundbite
Lane 4, lane 5. What's your score? Score is one sixty out of one sixty.
Pte Shawn Pellerin
My score was a one sixty out of one sixty. That’s the first time I shot perfect in a little while so I’m excited about that and hope to keep it up, keep doing the same and not change anything that I’m doing cause I seem to be doing good so far.
Sgt Sébastien Fréchette
One of the Bisley competition events is a gunnery simulation in a built up area. Cpl Grondin will explain in detail.
Cpl Jimmy Grondin
Basically, you shot ten round double tap at one hundred meter behind cover using wall as a support. Next you run to the seventy five meter, using kneeling support against the wall cover again, ten round rapid. From there, we run to the fifty meter, adopt the standing alert position. Soon the targets appear, one shot pending, one shot kneeling until you get ten round on the range, reload and move to the twenty five meter and you get tree exposure of three seconds in which you have to fire ten round.
Maj Mike Archibald
Close quarter battle range allows soldiers to practice a little more of the realistic skills that they use in training back in Canada. This range here is a hundred meter range. They’re required to use the barriers to get behind them to shoot at the targets.
Cpl Jimmy Grondin
You really have to know the match you’re playing, you have to know your weapon, your point of aim. It’s pretty hard, stay steady and get a good sight for you to release a good shot. Of course we can hit the target, but bringing a bullet wherever you want it, it’s a lot of work.
Cpl Devon Warner
It’s different than the matches at back home, this one’s more you know action oriented, more movement, more different positions and finding out how to adapt and overcome to different situations and scenarios.
Soundbite
You have eight seconds to run up and do a double tap in that eight seconds. Oh that’s right.
Cpl Devon Warner
Different target movements and different target faces.
Soundbite
Where you aiming? On the hand? Just the center of the bull. Yeah.
Cpl Devon Warner
Different scoring, and not to mention the fact, seeing different people from different countries try the same things and their weapon systems and the way they adapt to their weapons and the way they shoot and how well they shoot. I am a new guy to the team and it’s hard keeping up with these senior guys, but I’m definitely felling like I’m trying to do my part here.
Sgt Eric Gordon
During their time in Bisley, the Canadian team had a new challenge: advance to contact with moving targets. Let's go have a look.
Keith Cunningham
The range that's here is, it's called a moving man range and it's kind of unique in that we don't have any such ranges in Canada. And so, one of the first times that the soldiers get a chance to accurately shoot at moving targets is when they make the Canadian Forces team to Bisley.
MCpl Callum Ryan
It's not just a really great, both parallels are at play here, where we're moving as well as engaging a moving target left to right so it's very dynamic in that aspect.
Pte Jarid Clarkson
Trying to get the right lead on the target, if you're a little too soon or a little too late, you could either miss or catch the edge of the target which is normally not a scoring hit, so just to get definitely getting the right lead on the target, it's important.
Linda Miller
Back home in Canada, we had two weeks of training time and to train for this particular event. We were able to put people on a conventional range in the buts and use them to make the targets move for training purposes. However a fastest ordinary person can go is about the slow speed of the moving man here. We told them right at the start that they would be assessed by attitude, stamina, and scores, in that order. And they're doing everything they can on the Wednesday control directly and consequently they're doing marvellously on the scores in addition, and they've done just great here this morning, just beyond what we could have expected for a little training they actually get before they come here.
Keith Cunningham
We ask them to make our job hard for us when come the selecting various teams and they have done that. A lot of credit for the intensity of the troops, they're working hard, that shows immediately this morning with the types of scores that we're getting back.
Sgt Fréchette
During this stage of the competition, the challenge is to transport a wounded person for 400 metres before returning to the fire line.
Lt Nicholas Fysh
The Para cup is one of the more physical competitions here at Bisley. You have to drag a dummy that’s about 75 kilograms, drag or carry, it’s easier to drag. Once you get him to that point, your team, it’s a four man team, goes and bombs up their mags from loose ammunition. And this is all done under a time limit. Then when you get to the mound you have to do a mock section attack up the range. So you’ve got two fire teams doing bounds past each other, in a leap frog. You get there and you’re tired, and you’ve got to go do all this, and you’ve got to work together.
Maj Mike Archibald
It certainly puts the stress on them. They’re heart rate is up and they have to perform, when they’re under stress and not just lying behind the mound.
Sgt Gordon
Another part of the competition is to re-supply ammunition back to the front lines.
Maj Mike Archibald
This is simulated combat conditions and it will test many of our guys, but it will also test the other competitors as well, and the true top shot will come out of this.
Lt Nicholas Fysh
Any of these physical competitions, what makes it difficult is separating the physical from the shooting. So you go and you do this run, you drag the dummy and you complete all these tasks, but at the end of the day, it’s the rounds hitting the targets that score the points. So you’ve got to go and complete these tasks, then put that out of mind, get your breathing under control, get your heart rate down, and work through these things and get the rounds on paper regardless of what you just did. And that’s what makes this more difficult than any other match. We have an excellent team, we have a very fit team, and we have excellent shots on top of that. So I think we have a very good chance of walking away with it, if we just do our job and put rounds on paper on the day.
Sgt Eric Gordon
This year the Canadian Forces Combat Shooting Team performed very well in the UK.
Sgt Eric Gordon
The team returned from Bisley with three gold medals won in the Army Riffle Association portion of the competition.
Sgt Eric Gordon
In total, 13 individual medals were awarded and in the falling plates match, our CF team beat the two best teams in the world, the Omanis and the Ghurkhas.
Sgt Eric Gordon
Congratulations Team.
Sgt Eric Gordon
Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed our story. Until next time, be proud; stay fit.
Sgt Eric Gordon
I’m Sgt Eric Gordon. See you next time.
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