CFCST off to Bisley.
- Thread starter Longshot
- Start date
- Location
- currently downrange
CQM match
GRRR! &$^%%&% JAWAS! guess who? Make fun of their helmets at will.
Fleeting Encounter match
A fun weekend diversion
Century Range
GRRR! &$^%%&% JAWAS! guess who? Make fun of their helmets at will.
Fleeting Encounter match
A fun weekend diversion
Century Range
- Location
- currently downrange
There's an excellent shot of you from the side that will likely be used on the Western Sentinel cover - watch and shoot! You get photo credit in any event.
- Location
- currently downrange
- Location
- currently downrange
CFCST to Bisley article
Not yet published but describes the general feel of the Comp:
The Canadian Forces Combat Shooting Team in Bisley
Canadian Forces soldiers in July have recently returned to Canada after a busy summer of shooting, it was not combat but it was close enough to achieve mental stress, physical exhaustion, and thousands of empty brass casings. In fact, this military adventure even ended in Canadian soldiers bringing home medals, accolades, and giant trophies. This endeavour started with the noteworthy success of the Land Forces Western Area Combat Shooting Team’s expedition to the Canadian Forces Small Arms Concentration (CFSAC) in 2009 where successes in both the main competition and the Canadian Army Small Arms Meeting led to the Western Area Combat Shooting Team being given the honour of providing the core of the teams to international competitions in Australia, the United States, and most importantly the Central Skill at Arms (CENTSAM) competition in Bisley, United Kingdom. Top CF shooters on the team came from British Columbia to Nova Scotia and included the 2009 Reserve Queen’s Medalist, the next two runners up, five of the six Letson Cup winners from 3 PPCLI, and several more of the best Service Rifle shooters in Canada. The Canadian Forces Combat Shooting Team’s shooting skill backed up with excellent cohesion and morale this year proved to be a deciding winning factor in success at Bisley.
CENTSAM, better known as just “Bisley” needs no introduction to competitive shooters worldwide. It is summer competitions held in the UK’s National Rifle Association’s (NRA) National Shooting Center in the village of Bisley in Surrey, southern England. This massive shooting complex houses many ranges including Century Range, a 108 lane shooting range dating back to the 1800’s. The Imperial Meeting annually hosts target rifle shooters and other disciples but the origin of the competition and the real tie to the history of the event is Service Rifle shooting. The British Army’s Operational Shooting Competition (AOSC) is shot simultaneous to the NRA’s events and utilizes Century range and the Pirbright and Ash ranges at the nearby British Army Brunswick Camp. CENTSAM is really a combination of the AOSC and the NRA events, shot only by serving regular, reserve, and international teams. This year saw British Army regular and Territorial Army teams joined by teams from the Canadian Forces, New Zealand Army, Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces, and Falkland Island Defence Force teams.
This year the team had a majority of first timers, also known as Tyros, to the competition but they arrived ready to compete with only a rushed training period. One week in Wainwright, Alberta was all the coach had to gel the team into a tight squad of competitive combat shooters. The coach, WO Dave Oakie was well up to the task. A two time Queen’s Medalist and four time Bisley team vet was just recently honoured by being awarded the Edmonton Garrison Coach of the year for 2009 for his shooting team coaching at CFSAC 2009 and was nominated for 2009 CF Coach of the Year and CF Sports Hall of Fame. Coach Dave whipped the troops into shape quickly, scraping off the rust of almost a year without shooting at a competitive level. Ironically, busy operational tempo keeps soldiers almost so busy they do not have time to train to shoot at an advanced competitive level. Reservists are often left to train mostly on their own time and money and they all will often still come together to form a national shooting team capable of shooting beside the best shooters in the world. Happily despite Coach Dave’s almost 30 year absence from the Bisley scene, this year was still a great success story for the troops.
The competition is fun and challenging, the environment an old-world throw back to the tradition of the 1800s but at times could be easily described as brutal. Temperatures soared into a humid 30+ degrees every day. All matches were shot in full armour including helmets, ballistic vests, plates, and tactical equipment. Physically exhausting tasks are a normal precursor to most matches. The Whitehead cup involves a 500 meter sprint in full battle kit in 3 minutes followed by a 500 meter run and shoot event. The Parachute Regiment cup involves a 4 man team in full kit carrying a 70 kg dummy 300 meters, and reloading magazines with trembling hands and heaving lungs all within 6 minutes. The team then sprints 100 meters with heavy ammunition cans to the firing point where they commence a 500 meter run and shoot competition. It was an incredible feeling to prove to yourself that you are fit enough and skilled enough to do those tasks and then under competitive and timed stress shoot your C7A2 rifle at a man size target at half a kilometre away (500 meters) scoring hits every time. These are tests every Canadian marksman can aspire to and the CF has everything it needs to achieve it.
This year’s team pulled off impressive victories including some major trophy wins. Cpl Ryan Steacy from LFWA’s British Columbia Regiment pulled off the biggest individual win by capturing the Queen Mary match win. The incredible trophy is a twin award of silver pitchers and plate combos that was originally awarded at Wimbledon, the original location of this legendary competition in the early 1800’s. The award is allegedly insured for about four million British pounds and the original twin pitcher/plate combo has now been separated with part of the other half awarded at the famous (but less exciting for soldiers) tennis competition in Wimbledon.
3 PPCLI’s Cpl Leander Volz also had an impressive victory with the paratrooper pulling off a gold medal win in the Standing event, an extremely difficult event that was won with him shooting a rare “possible,” in other words a perfect score.
Cpl Ryan Steacy was also the leading scorer (another rare possible) on a gold medal team win of the Brinsmead match which saw a massive silver shield and gold medals awarded to Cpl Ryan Steacy (BCR), Cpl Dave Ferguson (1 NSH), Cpl Kyle Roder (BCR), and Capt Joe Jasper (3 PPCLI) with scores of 50, 49, 48, and 47 out of 50 which edged out the rival Omani team by a narrow margin.
Numerous other silver and bronze medal wins in the Territorial Army, Regular Army, and NRA matches mark this as a highly successful year for the CFCST. The Canadian Forces possesses world-class shooters, coaching, and support to compete at the center of Service Rifle shooting in the Commonwealth if not the world. Hopefully back in Canada with more victories such as these, a passion for Service Rifle and other marksmanship pursuits will be restored to former glory in the Canadian Forces as a training vehicle, recreation, and sport that is truly representative of a soldier’s lifestyle.
Not yet published but describes the general feel of the Comp:
The Canadian Forces Combat Shooting Team in Bisley
Canadian Forces soldiers in July have recently returned to Canada after a busy summer of shooting, it was not combat but it was close enough to achieve mental stress, physical exhaustion, and thousands of empty brass casings. In fact, this military adventure even ended in Canadian soldiers bringing home medals, accolades, and giant trophies. This endeavour started with the noteworthy success of the Land Forces Western Area Combat Shooting Team’s expedition to the Canadian Forces Small Arms Concentration (CFSAC) in 2009 where successes in both the main competition and the Canadian Army Small Arms Meeting led to the Western Area Combat Shooting Team being given the honour of providing the core of the teams to international competitions in Australia, the United States, and most importantly the Central Skill at Arms (CENTSAM) competition in Bisley, United Kingdom. Top CF shooters on the team came from British Columbia to Nova Scotia and included the 2009 Reserve Queen’s Medalist, the next two runners up, five of the six Letson Cup winners from 3 PPCLI, and several more of the best Service Rifle shooters in Canada. The Canadian Forces Combat Shooting Team’s shooting skill backed up with excellent cohesion and morale this year proved to be a deciding winning factor in success at Bisley.
CENTSAM, better known as just “Bisley” needs no introduction to competitive shooters worldwide. It is summer competitions held in the UK’s National Rifle Association’s (NRA) National Shooting Center in the village of Bisley in Surrey, southern England. This massive shooting complex houses many ranges including Century Range, a 108 lane shooting range dating back to the 1800’s. The Imperial Meeting annually hosts target rifle shooters and other disciples but the origin of the competition and the real tie to the history of the event is Service Rifle shooting. The British Army’s Operational Shooting Competition (AOSC) is shot simultaneous to the NRA’s events and utilizes Century range and the Pirbright and Ash ranges at the nearby British Army Brunswick Camp. CENTSAM is really a combination of the AOSC and the NRA events, shot only by serving regular, reserve, and international teams. This year saw British Army regular and Territorial Army teams joined by teams from the Canadian Forces, New Zealand Army, Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces, and Falkland Island Defence Force teams.
This year the team had a majority of first timers, also known as Tyros, to the competition but they arrived ready to compete with only a rushed training period. One week in Wainwright, Alberta was all the coach had to gel the team into a tight squad of competitive combat shooters. The coach, WO Dave Oakie was well up to the task. A two time Queen’s Medalist and four time Bisley team vet was just recently honoured by being awarded the Edmonton Garrison Coach of the year for 2009 for his shooting team coaching at CFSAC 2009 and was nominated for 2009 CF Coach of the Year and CF Sports Hall of Fame. Coach Dave whipped the troops into shape quickly, scraping off the rust of almost a year without shooting at a competitive level. Ironically, busy operational tempo keeps soldiers almost so busy they do not have time to train to shoot at an advanced competitive level. Reservists are often left to train mostly on their own time and money and they all will often still come together to form a national shooting team capable of shooting beside the best shooters in the world. Happily despite Coach Dave’s almost 30 year absence from the Bisley scene, this year was still a great success story for the troops.
The competition is fun and challenging, the environment an old-world throw back to the tradition of the 1800s but at times could be easily described as brutal. Temperatures soared into a humid 30+ degrees every day. All matches were shot in full armour including helmets, ballistic vests, plates, and tactical equipment. Physically exhausting tasks are a normal precursor to most matches. The Whitehead cup involves a 500 meter sprint in full battle kit in 3 minutes followed by a 500 meter run and shoot event. The Parachute Regiment cup involves a 4 man team in full kit carrying a 70 kg dummy 300 meters, and reloading magazines with trembling hands and heaving lungs all within 6 minutes. The team then sprints 100 meters with heavy ammunition cans to the firing point where they commence a 500 meter run and shoot competition. It was an incredible feeling to prove to yourself that you are fit enough and skilled enough to do those tasks and then under competitive and timed stress shoot your C7A2 rifle at a man size target at half a kilometre away (500 meters) scoring hits every time. These are tests every Canadian marksman can aspire to and the CF has everything it needs to achieve it.
This year’s team pulled off impressive victories including some major trophy wins. Cpl Ryan Steacy from LFWA’s British Columbia Regiment pulled off the biggest individual win by capturing the Queen Mary match win. The incredible trophy is a twin award of silver pitchers and plate combos that was originally awarded at Wimbledon, the original location of this legendary competition in the early 1800’s. The award is allegedly insured for about four million British pounds and the original twin pitcher/plate combo has now been separated with part of the other half awarded at the famous (but less exciting for soldiers) tennis competition in Wimbledon.
3 PPCLI’s Cpl Leander Volz also had an impressive victory with the paratrooper pulling off a gold medal win in the Standing event, an extremely difficult event that was won with him shooting a rare “possible,” in other words a perfect score.
Cpl Ryan Steacy was also the leading scorer (another rare possible) on a gold medal team win of the Brinsmead match which saw a massive silver shield and gold medals awarded to Cpl Ryan Steacy (BCR), Cpl Dave Ferguson (1 NSH), Cpl Kyle Roder (BCR), and Capt Joe Jasper (3 PPCLI) with scores of 50, 49, 48, and 47 out of 50 which edged out the rival Omani team by a narrow margin.
Numerous other silver and bronze medal wins in the Territorial Army, Regular Army, and NRA matches mark this as a highly successful year for the CFCST. The Canadian Forces possesses world-class shooters, coaching, and support to compete at the center of Service Rifle shooting in the Commonwealth if not the world. Hopefully back in Canada with more victories such as these, a passion for Service Rifle and other marksmanship pursuits will be restored to former glory in the Canadian Forces as a training vehicle, recreation, and sport that is truly representative of a soldier’s lifestyle.
Parker-Hale Mike
CGN Regular
- Location
- Beautiful Victoria
Damn good job boys. Also, excellent work Ryan. I think you need to go to Ottawa this year. That medal is calling your name.
banskopivo
CGN Regular
- Location
- Sherwood Park AB
Good job gents!
