30 ROUNDS

I’m sure it won’t surprise you when I say that when on exercise, cadets rely a great deal on their weapons. This, therefore, necessitates an adequate understanding of the parts of weapon as well as how to handle them. Our weekly lessons in weapons handling have done just that. The weapons handling cadre is split into two groups and is led by Sgt Logan and Mr Williams who have, over the past few weeks, taught us the myriad of different safety precautions and practical knowledge needed for handling a weapons including sling fitting, carrying out a full NSP (normal safety precautions), stripping and assembling and unloading and loading rifles. The weapon we have been using is the L98A2 Cadet GP (5.56mm) Rifle which is a self-loading, magazine fed weapon and has the ability to fire single rounds producing quick and accurate fire at short range opportunity targets as well as being effective at section fire at ranges up to 600 meters. The interplay of the 30 round magazine ( this magazine’s namesake) combined with the weapon’s self-loading capability highlights, all the more, the importance of such safety precautions as well as, the high standard of fire control needed to prevent any ammunition wastage. It has proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience and we hope to soon be able to put our lessons into practice on the range, after passing the final testing at the end of the intensive seven-week course.