Trainees

Today was a good day with the trainees.

There were only 4 of them so it was a pretty light load. We started by having them set up a range and then shooting that range. The range we used was a challenge because there is a metal bunker door in the right range butt - so when setting up targets it's important to make sure the bunker door isn't in the line of fire.

After we had set up the range - including building the walls, placing the starting box, placing the targets, working out the safety aspects etc - the trainees shot the course. Then Les (the Training Officer) gave them some tips on how to shoot the course intelligently, and then they shot it again. Their times dramatically improved when they actually thought about how to shoot the stage. I also notice that the first time they shot the course none of them planned their reloads - it was more a case of, "oh, there's no more bullets what do I do now?" situations. I mentioned this to them before their second shoot and they did much better on that score too.

After shooting this range, we moved onto the ranges that the squads were shooting and ended up shooting three of those stages. We worked on different starting positions in each of the shoots. One stage had swinging targets which the trainees found challenging. I Range Officered all of the shooting (certainly got a good workout!), had to remind a few people about "finger on trigger" and muzzle direction, but nothing too serious. One thing I noticed also, two of the guys were shooting Tanfoglios (most of the trainee guns are Glocks), and they weren't putting their safeties on after loading (prior to holstering), so I had to remind them about that.

I enjoyed doing the Range Officering job - I'm getting better at focusing on the gun rather than anything else.

Once the training course had finished, I let one of the trainees have a shot with my gun - he had been asking about it in previous weeks. Also the husband of one of the trainees had come to watch what his wife was up to ... so I gave him a shoot also. Then I shot off a couple of mags just for the practice.

I'm not shooting tomorrow, I'm off doing an Orienteering event in the morning and then a Vegetarian Cooking class in the afternoon.

Monday here is a public holiday for Anzac Day and I'll need to do some study. Anzac Day was actually today - but Western Australia is having the Monday as the Public Holiday (it's the only State in Australia that is).