A Busy Weekend

This Saturday we had planned to do practical rifle / shotgun with one group on Saturday morning and the Saturday afternoon group.

We generally use the two long ranges for training, one is called the ‘270’ range, the other the ‘rifle’ range. A month ago the guys who set up for the IPSC trophy shoot asked if they could use the 270 range this weekend and give me on of the other (shallower but wider) ranges in return. As I would be working with the non-rifle / shotgun people I agreed.

However, Friday afternoon around 3pm the Chief Instructor gets a call telling him that we can not use the rifle range this Saturday as some range works were being done!

This caused us to re-evaluate what we were going to do, as it really is not worth doing rifle / shotgun if we can’t use either the 270 or the rifle range. So we ended up with two sets of plans for Saturday – depending on what the TRUE situation was up at the range.

Normally for a trophy shoot the guys come up on Friday or early on Saturday to set up. When we got there the bulldozer was running around the rifle range, but nothing set up or happening on any of the other ranges.

We decided therefore to go with the original plans and use the 270 range for the rifle / shotgun training and I used one of the wider / shallower range for my group.

We were expecting 6 people for the rifle / shotgun – of which 5 turned up. We discovered the other one had been deployed to Papua New Guinea so we sort of understood his non-appearance.

I was expecting 9 in my group, of which 7 turned up. Most of my group have been shooting for 7 or more weeks and were really getting the hang of gun handling and safety. So I decided that I would make things interesting for them this week. The Chief Instructor made me up 100 dummy rounds so that I could force stoppages.

So after doing a few ‘wake up” standard exercises I asked them to empty two mags for me and take out 10 rounds. I gave them 10 dummy rounds and got them to mix up the rounds and load the mags. We then had a chat about stoppages and jams, how they can happen and what you need to do in each case. I then took the loaded mags off them, mixed them up and distributed them.

We then went to the firing line to practice the ‘bash, rack, bang’ method of stoppage clearance. It was a lot of fun. By about the third stoppage they were remembering to take their fingers off the trigger when they cleared them. We ended up doing the whole process three times with different (loaded / unloaded) start positions.

I then reorganised the range with three targets on the top right corner of the range and three on the top left, with boxes near each group of targets. We then practiced shooting strong hand at the right group of targets, doing a mandatory reload on the way and shooting weak hand at the left group. We then reversed the process. Everyone did very well. No one broke 90 on the mag changes (which is one of the things I was really testing with this scenario).

On another small range I had set up for an El Presidente (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_pistol_shooting) shoot. Three of the trainees were scheduled to do the Range Officer’s role this week as well. So I explained how the shoot worked, ROed the first trainee through, she then ROed the second, who ROed the third. Then they took on the ROing role (with me standing off their right shoulder) for the rest of the trainees. We shot the stage three times and a couple of the trainees were getting sub-10sec times, which is pretty good.

This used up all of the ammo so we called it a day (well it was also mid-day at this stage!).

During this stage the guys turned up to set up for the IPSC trophy shoot. So after we finished I went and had a chat to them about which ranges they needed etc. Turns out they didn’t need the 270 range after all, which meant that it was free for the afternoon’s training group.

All except one of the afternoon trainees turned up by 2pm, so we headed off to the 270 range with rifles in hand. All of the trainees have shot rifles a lot before, however they haven’t had experience with ‘practical rifle’ and the associated rules. We started off just doing static shooting with four different types of .22 rifles. My single shot Stirling and one of the bolt action ones were the most popular.

We then set up a stage with a door and a couple of windows and ran them through a practical stage. Two of the trainees turned up range with the rifles when they had finished the stage – as you would when out hunting (barrels were down, actions open) so we reminded them of the rules of practical shooting. We shot this stage twice, once with the bolt action and once with the lever action. No one had any other issues with the shooting.

So we then set up a target at about 25m (furthest extent of the range) and set up the Hornet on its bipod. We then gave everyone 5 rounds and decided to do a “smallest group” challenge. All except one trainee got all of their shots within a $2 sized area (this trainee only had one shot outside). An Australian $2 coin has a diameter of 2cm. There were 5 rounds left after the trainees had shot. So the Chief Instructor shot two, again within the $2 coin area and then it was my turn … eeekkk … I’ve not done any rifle shooting like this so I wasn’t sure how I would do. Anyway, I managed to get my three shots within the same sized area (phew)!

It was still pretty early when we finished the rifle shooting so we decided to get the semi-auto shotgun and my Tuffy out and had some fun with these.

Once the ammo was gone we called it a day and headed up to the Club House for a beer or two.

The plans this morning was to head out to an Orienteering course bright and early. However “bright and early” didn’t happen. We still decided that we would try and get to the registration point by the close-off time but we weren’t sure that we would make it (it’s about 50kms from where we live).

We actually managed to make it with 2mins to spare!

So I registered while my husband got the girls organised and then we set off on the “Easy Course”. We did some Orienteering last winter and the definition of the “Easy Course” seemed to be that there were easy to follow tracks between the check points. However, there were a few checkpoints on this course that weren’t joined by tracks and actually required some overland navigation.

My eldest normally does the navigation with a bit of help and she managed quite well today. We did lose one checkpoint and found another group of people who also couldn’t locate it. Hubby and the girls decided to have a sit down while I scouted around with this group to locate it. Which, luckily we did a short time later.

My youngest doesn’t like walking at all. So she started complaining the minute we left the start point and didn’t stop the whole time. Falling down twice didn’t help the situation. It’s a bit hard to know what to do with her. My eldest loves orienteering (as do I). Hubby quite enjoys getting out in the bush and we can’t really leave a 6y.o. at home on her own so we need to take her with us. But it does get quite frustrating when all she does is whinge and complain for 2.8kms!

I think being able to navigate via a map (and map / compass) is a very important skill to have so I really want to encourage her to join in with us and help navigate but so far I haven’t found a way.

After the walk we decided to meet up with a friend and go out to a local vineyard for lunch. The platters and wine went down well! A nice way to finish the weekend.

Orientation Reports #1 & #2

Forgot to write a post on our Orienteering Experience on April 26th.

We did a course out at John Forrest National Park. We were rather unsure of where we were supposed to go and what we were supposed to do. However, the registration area was well signposted and there were lots of people there to explain the process and advise.

Based on the advice received we decided to do the "VE - Very Easy" course. Apparently this level of course is designed for 7y.o. to navigate on their own. The course follows tracks or other obvious features the whole way and each turn is marked with a checkpoint.

The VE course was approximately 2.3km and it was a "walk in the park" (apart from a 5y.o. who complained ALL the time - my youngest doesn't like walking - ever!). Still she is very good at navigating and loved using the E-tag at the checkpoints.

Today we went and did another course out at Kalamunda National Park (Jorgensen Park). This time we decided to the "E - Easy" course.

This was more of a challenge. Although you can use tracks to get to each checkpoint there are options for cross-country work as well. We did a mixture of the tracks and cross-country, particularly as most of the cross-country work was through areas of Parrot Bush (not fun!). There were also less checkpoints, and the ones that were there were further apart.

We found that this was a good challenge for all of us. My youngest still complained the whole way though ... so I'm trying to decide if it is worth dragging her along with us each time or if we should find an alternative activity for her on Sunday mornings. I like the idea of the family doing an activity together and she is quite a strong willed child so learning to compromise isn't the worst thing she could learn. However, I don't want to turn her off orienteering forever.

Unfortunately my camera has just eaten my photos of the events. Here's some from my husband's camera of the first event:


At a checkpoint


The cheer squad


My Youngest's Favourite Hobby

We are looking forward to the next event at Gooseberry Hill National Park on Sunday May 10th.

Introduction to Orienteering

I had been thinking about getting involved in Orienteering during the winter months but didn't really feel confident to just turn up at a meet so when the Guides advertised an Orienteering Course I thought it would be a good way to find out what it was all about.

So at 8.30 this morning a group of seven of us met the Instructor out at Fred Jacoby park in Mundaring. It was quite cool - guess who didn't have a jumper? However, it didn't take long to get warm once we got moving.

The first part of the course was spent looking at sample maps and learning to recognise various symbols and understand contours. We then moved onto using compasses and then we did a little relay game. My girls had come up the park and were hanging out with Dad while I was doing the course, but they joined in on this game.

After morning tea we were given a map to the main challenge of the day. The Instructer said that the course wasn't suitable for children, but I decided to take my eldest with me (I had a radio so I could call my husband to come and get her if it was too much). We were given the option of doing the whole course or only 2/3rds of it if we were running short of time. However, when we got to the 2/3rds marker we still had quite a lot of time remaining so decided to do the rest. My daughter did the whole thing with me, I was very proud of her as there wasn't a single word of complaint the whole time.

The course was very steep in places, we basically caught up with most of the other participants at one checkpoint because none of us could find it. We worked in a group from there on in. After we eventually found that checkpoint and then the next one we ended up on a embankment - most of us decided that going down on our bums was the most effective method of proceeding.

There were a few slips and slides, most of the route was pea gravel, pine needles or dust (especially in the area that the dirt / mountain bikes used). My daughter was nearly taken out by a mountain bike - I managed to drag her out of the way just in time. But all in all it was a challenging and fun event.

The major challenge took just on 2hrs and I burnt around 1300cals - so a great workout too.

I've now got the program for the various orienteering events around Perth over the winter as my eldest and myself are both pretty keen to do more of this. Unfortunately they run on Sunday mornings, so it is a choice between shooting or orienteering.

I also realised that having limited vision in my right eye (due to this virus) meant that my depth perception was affected, which increased the challenge in places! I think I'll wait until my eye is fully recovered before doing another course.