S3M 2025 Part 2

Everyone woke up in the early morning to get ready for breakfast.  The temperature outside was noticeably cold as we walked to the nearby mess hall.  Cold weather is a given in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  It’s the Prairies; the land is very flat.  Breakfast was served at 6:30am.  The cadets & I didn’t have to pay because all meal expenses were covered.  Thank you!  We just had to tell the cashiers we were participating in the cadet marksmanship competition.  I normally don’t eat breakfast, but I decided to take advantage of the “free” military food.  We returned to barracks after finishing our meal to get ready for the day.

I was assigned a military van to ferry cadets between barracks & competition venue.  The venue was a large gym, the same one used in last year’s competition.  I possess a license to drive civilian vehicles owned by the military.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t allow me to drive tanks.  My cadets & I loaded the van with our air rifles & gear, and headed over to the gym. 

The gym had been turned into an air rifle range for the weekend.  There were 30 shooting lanes.  Each lane had a mat and a SIUS electronic target system.  The systems were connected via wires to a single computer on a table at the back of the gym.  The installed SIUS software tracks, maps, and calculates shooting scores in real time.  It’s an expensive setup.

The competition organizers held a short meeting with all the coaches.  We were given schedules, washrooms locations, reviewed range safety procedures, and selected judges.  We were dismissed to instruct our teams to get ready for rifle & equipment checks.  Air rifles, shooting jackets, and other equipment are inspected to look for defects and/or unauthorized modifications.  No cheating is allowed.  My cadets passed their checks.  (So did the other cadets). 

The first day of the competition focused on shooting prone.  Teams were given time to practice shooting and zero in their rifles.  This was spread across two relays.  Teams were organized into two groups because the gym can only accommodate 30 shooting lanes.  You’re on break & waiting when you’re not shooting.  The real competition began after the practice relays.

Teams shot three 30-minute prone relays.  Cadets are allowed to shoot practice shots but are encouraged not to spend too much time on this because they don’t count.  I stood & observed my cadets while they competed.  I also took photos. 

Lunch was catered by Subway.  Boxes of premade Subway sandwich meals were delivered after 11am.  There were several options to choose.  Each box came with two six-inch sandwiches, bottled water, and cookies.  I selected the cold cuts meal.

Shooting continued in the afternoon and concluded around 4pm.  The cadets assisted the officers in setting up the range for standing shooting the following day.  We returned to barracks and enjoyed dinner at the mess hall.  I drove my cadets to a nearby mall for evening shopping.  We stayed there for an hour and then returned to base.

The second day of the competition began the same way as the first.  Early wake up and early breakfast at the mess hall.  I was put to work ferrying a few cadet teams between the barracks & gym.  It’s expected when you have a military driver’s licence. 

The second day was all about standing shooting.  This is more challenging because you don’t have the floor to rest your arms.  You need to rely on your entire body to aim straight and hit the target with each shot.  Teams were once again given time to practice & zero in their rifles.  Then the real shooting began.

Teams shot three standing relays.  I stood behind my cadets and gave them advice when needed, just like the previous day.  Lunch was catered by Pita Pit.  The competition organizers ordered boxes of pitas in several flavours as well as cookies & bottled water.  All shooting relays were completed by 12:30pm.

Cadets & officers spent the next hour tearing down the air rifle range & cleaning the gym.  The SIUS target systems were taken apart and placed in large metal boxes on wheels.  The gym floor was swept, and the cadets did a garbage sweep to make sure nothing was left behind.  The cadets were formed up on mass, congratulated for competing at Stage 3, and told the final results would be published next month. 

Several teams were dismissed early because they had flights to catch.  My cadets & I weren’t one of them.  An officer took a photo of us before we returned to barracks for the remainder of the day.

We didn’t get much sleep because we had to be at the Winnipeg Airport in the (very) early morning.  I’m not a fan of red eye flights but sometimes you have no choice.  An officer dropped us off and wished us the best.  We checked in our luggage and got through security.  Getting through security was quick because my military ID got us into the priority line.  The flight to Ottawa was uneventful.

We had to wait at the Ottawa Airport for four hours before boarding the Canadian North plane to Iqaluit.  Like the old Tom Petty song goes, “the waiting is the hardest part”.  We enjoyed a dinner meal on the plane.  We landed in Iqaluit in the early evening.  We collected our air rifles & luggage, and took taxis to our hotel.  The military staff who arranged our travel called ahead and ordered dinner meals from Yummy Shawarma.  They were delivered to our hotel.  The cadets & I went to bed with full stomachs.

We returned to the Iqaluit Airport the next morning and boarded a Canadian North turboprop plane.  The plane took off and flew northwest to the top of Baffin Island.  The plane landed in Arctic Bay at 11am.  Parents were waiting inside the terminal to greet their kids and give them rides into town.  My ride into town was Frank.  He helped me move the air rifles back to the locked storage room in the school.  I was then driven home.

Overall, the trip went well, and the marksmanship team had fun.  Now we have to play the waiting game until the final results are announced.    

End of Stage 3 Marksmanship 2025 mini-series.