LAC Daniel Hawinkels reports on the Marksmanship Principles weekend:
The first day started off slowly for most cadets at the TS Taupo. There was only one officer and no NCO’s. The first day consisted of revising our TOETS (Test of Elementary Training) and TALICSA (Treat every firearm as loaded, Always point firearms in a safe direction, Load a firearm only when ready to fire, Identify your target, Check your firing zone, Store firearms and ammunition safely, Avoid alcohol and drugs when handling firearms).
After this we went to do our test that proved we could handle a firearm safely. I managed to do it on my first go this time. It took a while to do this because there were almost 20 cadets and only 1 officer. As this was my third time attending this day I was not nervous but I can imagine that a few of the newer cadets were.
On the second day there was 2 officers and about 3 NCO’s so things moved a lot faster. We spent this day at the Royal Tiger Range in Newtown. I did not shoot my best, probably because I had not been shooting since September the previous year and partly because we were shooting on new firearms which had a different sight to the old ones. This made shooting a little difficult this year while I got used to the new sights.
Overall these were a good two days and were very informative.