The Fort Garry Horse conducts live fire refresher training

SHILO, Manitoba – Another typical spring day in southern Manitoba brings fresh snow and a wind chill of -5°C. Great weather for The Fort Garry Horse to conduct refresher training on the C6 general-purpose machine-gun, C9 machine-gun, 84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle and grenades.

Climbing a small hill on Prickly Pine, a field firing range in Shilo, soldiers climbed into one of three firing trenches where two C6s and one C9 are set up.

The targets could be seen 200 to 900 meters away.

The soldiers received either one box of C6 ammunition or one drum of C9 ammunition, depending on the weapon they fired. Once given the order to load and fire, they began to engage the various targets under the direction of safety staff.

"That was actually a pretty good shoot. If we had some trace we could have probably engaged out to 500 meters," said Sergeant Dean Horne, one of the safety staff.

"I couldn't see through the scope where the rounds were hitting. Two hundred meters was on, went to 500 meters. Couldn't see the splash, couldn't see anything. So, I finished it off at 200 meters," said Corporal Kyle Beverley as he finished firing the C9.

Over the noise of the C6 and C9 machine-guns firing, Sgt Jeff Carswell, another safety staff shouted instructions: "Reference, 12 o'clock, 400 meters, six times, infantry in open ground, on."

After finishing firing the C6 and C9, and throwing practice grenades as a secondary activity, the soldiers moved on to the rocket range where they fired the 84mm Carl Gustav.

The following day, the soldiers practiced rappelling at the new rappel tower in Shilo under the watchful eye of Petty Officer Brad Gillespie and Sgt Carswell.

Article and photos by Corporal Gomm