L98 appears to be the weapon of choice for our wing at least. At least one shoot/IWT a quarter. I’ve seen the .22 once in the last 3 years (admittedly I am not a regular shooter any more)
We were out this weekend, the first long range shoot in a long time and managed to get x5 advanced marksman on the L98A2. The Wing as a general shoots well at AR level and the wing shoots are every other month. All in all not to bad.
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Not bad at all
I’ve heard the ACF have largely dropped the 144 in favour of AR, I’d certainly like more access to the AR due to the much simpler logistics.
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Whats .22?
5.588mm 
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A shade under quarter of an inch?
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I shall rephrase…
Whats shooting in the corps?
Minimal here.
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I remember the days when our Squadron booked out .303s at the range and from the TA SLRs and LMGs plus thousands of rounds of ammunition for a range day , even did a deal with the TA PARAs for GPMGs and belts of link rounds including tracer.
They taught our cadets how to use them and we taught PARAs how to use a bolt action rifle. Looks of surprise at the .303 recoil.
Happy days at Altcar, rain hail or snow.
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Down our way, monthly L98 and whenever squadrons want to do AR.
Again, different Wings, different outcomes
I have touched any form of RAFAC rifle on a range since about 2005/6
I do have WHT etc though
Shot the huge quantity of 3 rds at 300 yds last Sat - ETR range - hadn’t fired L98 for over a yr = 3 hits. The cadet / coach (me) had done a good job of zero / working out correct POA.
AR is very simple, easy storage on unit. No wpn / ammo transfers to local range.
Latest change to RSD template is a bit of a gotcha - specifies ratio of 1:1 for first time firers. For L98, yep, not an issue to work with that - but for AR?? Just bounced the issue up the COC - define “first time firers” - first detail, until end of CLF1? For an AR range, it’s way over the top - & same for the 1:2 “normal” ratio, should be 1:3 for AR - and no admin order needed (where the heck did that originate from?); admin order basically repeats the information on the RSD, pointless exercise.
Finally - good that TS25 range kit can be used, but same principal, “3 lane” TS25 set-up will normally be limited to 2 lanes for most sqns (ratio 1:2) as they only have one RCO, no safety supervisor.
Of course, ideal world = no RSD (or “standing RSD”) to allow maximum flexibility of using AR - drill planned, but it’s raining, so let’s do some shooting. Nope, 2 hr SMS faff + associated COC approval. Or, you have to pre-plan every parade night as a possible shooting event = overload all round.
The NSRA manage to run a one day RCO cse for .22 shooting, whereas RAFAC…
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All good points.
We did - when we still had a range 
- put in an SMS that covered a block of weeks and we had different RCOs lined up. So a fair few RSDs but it worked alright.
My NSRA was 2 days however. Youth Proficiency Scheme. And was AR only (though I think it can be run with .22 or there’s an alternative one that is).
I see your views, and do count them as valid.
The way round we have, is a third parade night once a month, to run AR shooting on unit.
And additional evenings or a weekend morning for training.
Compared to. .22 (remember them kids?) on sqn, I find AR so much easier to manage, and ulitise…except this staff member is knackered pumping up the rifles…
Must… huff … Invest in a huff… Compressor…
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You need one of the compressors, makes life a lot easier. Not cheap though.
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DCCT L98 over the summer. Getting our range and rifles back up and running this month deliberately vague
So hopefully should be shooting .22 on a regular basis through 2023. As with all things RAFAC getting (re)started is hard but should be worth it in the end.
I’ve amended that for you. 
We should be looking at making shooting (or rather the associated admin) easier. Having to repetitively submit an RSD for the same functionality (at a sqn) is a time consuming & pointless exercise. Is the RSD going to change significantly? No? What about the AO? No. RA? No. Anything else to be thrown in? No.
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Dnw shoot very regularly and are trying to plan more shooting as time goes on
This is true. The CSBTR is no longer in our syllabus for shooting, though it is still available for competition shooting. I say “available”, but one problem with it is it was always low priority for servicing and was always out of action for long periods of time. Keeping L98A2s in service is much easier.
Our syllabus now goes: Basic and 1 Star - AR, 2 and 3 star - L98A2.
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It’s not so much how often is the shooting, but how often is the training.
I’m trying to not embellish here but I swear I once shot the .22 on a parade night, the following weekend went and did training, wht and shot l98.
Then a few weeks later did training, wht and shot the l81.
We get regular l98 shoots, and have loads of squadrons with air rifle ranges, but it’s the training that holds it all up.
Which to me seems bonkers, particularly on the air rifle - we’ve had cadets go and buy air rifles and shoot them in their gardens, but they’re not trained for the RAFAC.
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This has been a problem for as long as I can remember. We dont make it easy for CFAV to get the Cadets out and about and enjoying the many opportunities that are apparently available to them within this organisation.
There is a better way but unfortunately I doubt it will ever change instead it will decline like many other activities.
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