February 2005
St Albans Sea Cadets came third in an area shooting competition this weekend. Leading Cadet Kyle Sharpe(17) of Hatfield led the team. The competition was shooting 25 yards with .22 rifles. The targets are just 2 inches across but as Kyle commented, "At 25 yards it's like aiming at the end of a pin, we could have done better, my warm up shots were better than my scoring ones. I'm usually good at scoring, but at competition it's always harder!"
The cadets have regular target practice on Wednesday nights, for which there is no charge. Moving on from this cadets can go on courses for full bore shooting.
This is what Able Cadets Jack Tyler (14 pictured) of Welwyn Garden City and Lucy Parker (14) of London Colney did recently at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth. Jack said, " It was brilliant, we got a week off school to go on a Sea Cadet full bore rifle course, which involved using the L98 Cadet GP Rifle which basically is a single shot version of the SA80."
"OK, I think I can remember the technical bit: the SA80 (picture below) is the rifle British forces are currently using. It fires NATO standard 5.56 x 45mm ammunition; and weights just 4.98kg complete with loaded magazine and optical sight with a muzzle velocity 940 metres a second giving aa effective range of 500m. The course itself consisted of 5 days shooting and training which involved learning rifle drills, i.e. stripping and cleaning the rifle then putting it back together, what to do in case of stoppages, unloading and loading and NSPs which are what you do to make sure there is no live rounds in the chamber-so no one accidently gets shot! The course in my oppinion is the best in the corps!"
"We stayed onboard the ex-royal navy ship HMS Bristol, which is permanently docked in Portsmouth harbour. The day started with a lovely english breakfast taken with "real" junior rates. We ate lunch on the ranges. When we were shooting we used the 25 yard range at Tipner a few miles away from the base. The course was run by two really good instructors, Chief Petty Officer (SCC) Sexton and Major (SCC) Fleet." Continued Jack, pictured, "The thing that made the week remarkable for me was that if you left a thing called a dustcover open (its a little cover that stops the gun from jamming) you had to buy a mars bar. I reached record levels by having to buy 17 mars bars which were shared at the end of the week. So I was proud to have to have made a record! The course is subsidised and only cost £20 but with the mars bars all my pocket money went! It was a truly memorable week and I think everyone in the corps should do it at least once if not twice."
Shooting is a small part of what Sea Cadets do. There are sports and outdoor activities (eg kayaking, shooting, sailing, camping/survival, first aid & orienteering) to get involved in as well as practical activities such as cooking, engineering, seamanship, and first aid. Plus there are opportunities to take trips on Royal Navy ships, sail before the mast aboard the Sea Cadet's square rigged flagship TS Royalist.
It is open to boys and girls aged from 10 to 18 and anyone can turn up at 7pm on a Tuesday or Friday parade night. The Sea Cadets are based behind Westminster Lodge swimming pool and for more information visit www.stalbans-seacadets.org.uk
See Training section for course opportunities
in 2006!