[Music Starts]

Corporal Matt Valcour: I don’t think a lot of people realize how mentally and physically taxing shooting can be. If you score a perfect score you get an ice-cream.

[Music Ends]

Lieutenant Adam Orton: Hi, Lieutenant Adam Orton here with the Canadian Army Podcast, and today we are going to talk about marksmanship. Marksmanship is a skill that every soldier has to have, and, when you’re in the Army, you’re a soldier first. The Canadian Armed Forces Small Arms Concentration, or CAFSAC for short, is where shooters from across the country, and even internationally, come together, shoot together, and learn how to be the best marksmen they can be. The event usually happens every September—but this year, it’s been postponed until 2021. Organizers can use this extra planning time to make the event even more operationally oriented, a direction it’s been heading for the past few years. Here to talk about marksmanship, CAFSAC, and how soldiers can maximize their skills is Corporal Matt Valcour, from the Governor General’s Foot Guards in Ottawa. Hey, Matt!

Cpl Valcour: How’s it going sir?

Lt Orton: Great. So, you have a lot of experience in the marksmanship world. You have six national pistol championships under your belt. You ranked top ten in rifle for five years at CAFSAC, pistol and rifle combined three-time winner, and you competed and won in a bunch of countries: US, UK, Australia. You’ve coached the 4 DIV P-RES shooting team at CAFSAC in 2017, and you’ve helped coach in a bunch of different environments. How did you get started in marksmanship?

Cpl Valcour: So, before joining the Reserves, I was introduced to someone who was working with the Ottawa Police Service and he was a former reservist. And, he was telling me about his experiences travelling internationally, competing, and how it was all paid through with the military, and just amazing experiences he had. And that kind of gripped me. I was like ‘wow! I need to get myself in a position where I can do the same thing.’ So, as soon as I got into the Governor General’s Foot Guards, I got in contact with the shooting team captain who’s Captain Sean Gagnon, who’s a two-time Queen’s Medallist—so he’s a very well-respected member of the community.

Lt Orton: What is the Queen’s Medal, if you want to get into that real quick?

Cpl Valcour: So, the Queen’s Medal is a top shot at CAFSAC, and there’s a reserve and regular force component. So, he’s a two-time winner. So, winning that once is kind of the crown jewel of the shooting world. So, having two of them is quite a big deal. So, having someone like that at my home unit—it was very fortunate for me because I was learning from one of the best right from the start of my career. And as soon as I started with the shooting team it kind of took over my adult life, and that was what I did for the next eight years.

Lt Orton: I like it. You know, when you’re at the unit, people are just kind of going about their day-to-day business—whether that’s reg force or reserve. But, you know, if you want to focus and develop your skills in the military, you know sometimes it can be difficult to make time and space for that. How can a regular soldier within a unit or an organization improve their marksmanship level beyond that of your regular day-to-day training and operational stuff?

Cpl Valcour: I think one of the best ways is being surrounded by like minded people. So, for me, for example, at the unit, there was a group of people that were just really driven to become better marksman, to become better soldiers. And once we were with this group, we took the time, we tried to find sergeants, we tried to find leadership that could book the SATS range or book ranges, to enable us to get our training in. So, we kind of started at the ground level pushing the higher ups to try and get more trigger time. But it evolved to the point where we developed the skill set administratively to do these things on our own. So, we got to the point where we could book the SATS range, we were booking ranges, getting ammo, getting our trucks, going to the ranges, everything was done.

Lt Orton: Done the right way.

Cpl Valcour: It was done the right way. But, again, it took time for us to learn the procedures, the administrative side. The fun part of marksmanship was of course the shooting stuff. But, behind the scenes, a lot of things that privates and corporals aren’t seeing—we developed those skill sets so that we could enable our own training. What I would suggest to someone, you know, if there’s a private or corporal out there who is looking to become a better shooter—when you’re issued a rifle, do some dry firing. There are some small things you can do to help hone your soldiering skills, whereas all the other guys kind of put that stuff to the wayside. Every single time I’m handed a rifle—even if it’s for a parade, or for an exercise, it doesn’t matter—I set my sight to where it belongs on the rail, I’ll do a couple dry fires. Every single time I’m handed a rifle, and I think that’s one of the keys to success, is using those repetitions whenever you have the opportunity to.

Lt Orton: You know, it’s kind of interesting—I think everybody goes through that evolution. Like, just talking about soldiering where, you know, when you first start off you are focused on your core competencies, whatever that’s relevant for you, whether it’s patrolling or individual mil-skills or whatever. But, I think everybody evolves in their career, or almost everyone evolves in their career to develop the backend logistical skill set, because, you know, running a range isn’t as simple as just putting a bunch of ammo in your pocket and grabbing a rifle and going out there in a military context. You know, there’s a little bit more paperwork and administration that goes into it.

Cpl Valcour: Absolutely. That’s been one of the big rules for us where, for the first several years we didn’t have, necessarily, the administrative knowledge to kind of enable our team to succeed. But, over the years after having a lot of talks with different SMEs to really kind of understand what is required to book your own range and to enable our own training. But once we gathered that knowledge, to me at least, I tried to disseminate that to other soldiers from other units. You know, we see a guy that’s training so often, how can we enable that at my home unit. So, I was always willing to try to share the information so that others could also participate in their own training.

Lt Orton: Yeah, of course. So, we’ve been talking about CAFSAC. What role does that play in kind of developing the spirit of marksmanship within the Army?

Cpl Valcour: So the idea behind CAFSAC is to gather the best, or high-level shooters in one area from across Canada, from different countries to compete—but also to learn from one another, which is a huge aspect of it. And then, to return to your home unit to disseminate that information. I have been very fortunate with the Governor General’s Foot Guards where that dissemination part, which is often missed, has been actually enabled and thrived. So, I go to CAFSAC, I learn from British shooters, American shooters, Canadian shooters—I learn these new cool tips and tricks, this new method, shooting kneeling for example—then, I go back to the home unit where we had every Wednesday night, we had the SATS trainer. The SATS trainer, for those who don’t know, is a small arms trainer; it’s electronic, so there is no actual ammunition. It’s basically a video game but with real—you’re handing a real C7. So, we had that every Wednesday night, it was open to anyone in the rifle company.

So, the quote-on-quote SMEs from CAFSAC would go disseminate the information that they learned to everyone in the rifle company. And, I’m very proud to say that over the course of seven years, every single person that came out on those Wednesday nights consistently scored marksmanship on the PWT3. So, we took it quite seriously and I think that’s something that maybe some other units could definitely learn from where they send their shooters to CAFSAC, but once they return back to their home units. They get kind of pushed to the wayside: ‘oh, you’re a corporal, oh you’re so and so,’ you know, ‘go off to the side.’ But we’ve been quite fortunate where: ‘oh, we’re doing a pistol lecture tonight, you know, Corporal Fortin is a great pistol shot. Would you mind actually coming up next to the sergeant and you guys can teach us a lecture together?’ We’ve been very fortunate, again, at the Governor Governor General’s Foot Guards to have been able to disseminate everything that we’ve been learning over the years.

Lt Orton: It’s interesting that you mention the SATS range, and depending on where you sit within the organization and some of the stuff that you’ve done, people have strong opinions of the value of electronic slash dry firing training versus actual range time. Can you maybe talk a little bit more about the use of electronic and dry firing versus range time in a good training program?

Cpl Valcour: Yeah, I think the SATS has its limitations, but it is an amazing tool. To me, it’s essentially advanced dry firing. But, objectively, if I was to take a junior shooter—someone with no experience—and spend several hours in the SATS, and then take them out to the range. That person will be far more prepared for the live shoot having spent that time in the SATS. If you had to choose between shooting in the SATS or shooting live, of course I’ll pick live every time. But the reality is, there are constraints, time, ammunition, all these different things. But the SATS are readily available, they’ve already been purchased. Most of the time they’re sitting there collecting dust. So, it’s an amazing tool for a very low cost, well, front heavy cost, but once you have it, it’s there. And again, like I was saying earlier, we use it every single Wednesday. If it was up to me, I would be using it two to three times a week if I could. It is absolutely an underutilized tool.

Lt Orton: And when you connect that to the discussion on, kind of, the back end work of, you know, transporting people out to the range, organizing all of that. If you already have a ready-made, built-in solution, it’s not equivalent in terms of live firing, but if you can just grab twenty people and go in and do a couple hours of training then, you know, you’re still getting something out of it. It might not be the perfect solution but you’re doing something.

Cpl Valcour: Exactly.

Lt Orton: So, competition shooting, people have different opinions on that. But there has been some perception that we’re kind of training people to be quote-on-quote belly shooters, or, you know, non-operational shooters versus kind of the dynamic environment of a combat situation. What role do you think CAFSAC plays in the development of the marksmanship mentality?

Cpl Valcour: So, to answer your question about the belly shooting: I think that’s a little bit more of the old style, CIVSAC, even before then. But through my experience, nationally and internationally, these competitions have been evolving quite greatly. If you were to look at one of the hardest matches at CAFSAC, the soldiers cup, that’s an over two kilometre run, with the obstacle course, you’re wearing the FFO, you’ve got your plates in. Once you’ve done the run, you arrive at a 500 metre point, I believe you start, and you do a 500 metre section attack. Me being a soldier, the three core skills are move, shoot, communicate. And that match encompasses all three extremely well. So, you’re in a section context doing a section attack and you're all exhausted from the PT previously. But this isn’t just that one match. If you look at a regular rifle match, a lot of it involves move, shoot, communicate. Which are, again, those are the core skills that we are trying to re-enforce when you go in on a Tuesday night—if you’re a Reg Force guy and you’re going to exercise, these are the kinds of things you’re trying to develop. But the marksmanship training is not just marksmanship. You are really are developing the core soldier skills. And I wanted to stress, you can fall back on those fundamentals that you have been building over the years. I think a great example of something that I learned at CAFSAC and carried over on exercise was a field expedient sighter. Are you familiar with that?

Lt Orton: No.

Cpl Valcour: So, a field expedient sighter is where you’re shooting and you have the backstop, which is where the rounds are caught in the dirt. And, you look for a defined point within the dirt, so either a clump of dirt, a little piece of grass or something and you shoot at it. It’s a way to rough zero your rifle, so my point of aim becomes my point of impact. So, this is a skill that I learnt at CAFSAC where if something of my sight explodes, something to my piece of kit happens during the match, I can then zero my rifle on the go.

So, flash forward to this exercise we’re doing a defensive exercise and we’re shooting at Lockheed Martin Targets, the ones that pop up and down once they’ve been fired. We’ve all been handed rifles that aren’t zeroed and I’m on the second group of people to shoot. The first group of people, no one is hitting anything because again these rifles aren’t zeroed—zeroed meaning, again, point of aim, point of impact. I go up, I notice I’m not hitting anything, so I find a clump of dirt way off in the distance, and I manipulate my sight, zero it, and then I start picking off the Lockheed Martin’s. And afterwards I’m getting off the line and the sergeants like, and I’ll never forget this, the sergeants like: ‘oh, Corporal Valcour, you’re pretty lucky your sight was on.’ And, in my head I just kind of laughed, but I was like: ‘well no,’ but I didn’t say it to him. But I was like well no, I did the work because, again, that was an amazing skill that I had learnt through CAFSAC. So again, these were small tips and tricks, these are the ways to set up your TAC vest, the way to set up your rifle.

The constraints that we are giving our equipment, we’re pushing the envelope on all the edges, and all of the methods that we could possibly can, to again—we are competing, but when I see now: ‘oh, why is that guy shooting kneeling now. That’s a really cool way of shooting.’ I go over and I’m like, “hey, can you teach me the way you're shooting? Kneeling like that’s a much more efficient way then I’m doing it.” You’re kind of fostering that learning environment.

Lt Orton: So, you had an interesting theme there, which is, really what you’re doing when you’re shooting your kind of concentrating, maybe not specifically on the score, but that’s the end game. So, you’re kind of looking at an environment that only focuses on that. You’re developing skills that enable you to kind of troubleshoot problems on the fly to ensure maximum performance. And then that troubleshooting capability kind of carries over into your regular soldier skills, and you can apply those when you’re doing whatever other task you’re doing.

Cpl Valcour: Absolutely. There’s been time and time again where skills I learnt at CAFSAC or at other international competitions have carried over to my soldiering career in the reserves. I think one of the again another good example of a match that carries directly over into soldiering; we’re in the UK and I believe it’s either a 100 or 200 metre sprint, and you run into a building that we’ve never been in before. And it’s a four-story building. We all adopt a firing position within that building, and then there’s Lockheed Martin Targets popping up from three hundred metres away to five hundred metres away. In a normal context, a unit, the furthest you’ll fire a C7 is 300 metres. So now, under stress with my full kit, we’d run into this house, adopt the firing position, and I’m making a wind call. I’m now trying to identify the targets to try to identify the distances, there’s no range markers, we don’t know how far they are. I’m making all of these decisions in a split second in my mind because, again, CAFSAC and the training before CAFSAC helped build up those fundamental soldiering skills that are often either overlooked, or unfortunately, under-trained.

Lt Orton: And that’s the thing. It’s fostering that mindset and that mental process. And once it’s there, it’s kind of always there to an extent regardless of what you’re doing.

Cpl Valcour: Exactly.

Lt Orton: You know, we’re talking about soldiering and stuff—and, to maybe, somebody who’s not necessarily familiar with that. Generally, when you’re doing army stuff, there is more than shooting. You know, there’s unit tactics, logistics, planning and all of this stuff. And, the actual pulling the trigger, and firing on a target, represents a very small slice of all of the stuff that we do in the Army. And, you know, your average new soldiers getting pulled in a lot of different directions with trying to train for patrolling, and remaining physically fit, and understanding some of the administration pieces and all that stuff. So, what kind of training mechanisms, other than, you know, fostering that mentality that you already talked about—what kind of training mechanisms are particularly applicable that you’ve seen during the marksmanship training process for CAFSAC versus the day-to-day marksmanship training that we see at the unit level? And, you know, in the schools and things like that. Like, what can we do better?

Cpl Valcour: Okay. The biggest difference between a CAFSAC training range or a unit range if we’re going to take those as two comparisons, I would say is the preparedness, the efficiency of the ranges, the maximum use of resources, and I’m going to kind of dive into that. So, for me, the preparedness—well, let’s just look at it side-by-side. So, let’s say you’re going to your unit PWT3 range. What ends up happening is you get off the bus, you get to the range, you do your TOETs, and then you’re going to get your range brief. After, let’s say, today there’s fifty shooters on the range, and everyone’s been there, it might take anywhere from eight hours to twelve hours to get these fifty people qualified on PWT3. You do your twenty rounds, at 100 metres for your sighters, and then you go back, you shoot your forty nine rounds for your test, your PWT3, and then you’re done. As soon as you’re done, you don’t get to see your targets. Hopefully someone at the end of the day will say hey corporal so-and-so you scored X, corporal so-and-so you scored Y. You may or may not actually get any information. So, over the course of, let’s say an eight-hour day, the shooters fired sixty nine rounds and had very little training value, whether it was their wind call correct, were they hitting high, were they hitting low. There hasn’t been much coaching. It’s been a check in the box.

And if you take that exact same amount of ammunition, that exact same day on a shooting team range, what would end up happening—same start, where you do your TOETs, you get your range safety brief, the efficiency of this range is amazing, in maybe the best word, where time on trigger and time learning is maximized. So, they’re going to have a different relay system then we’ve normally seen on a PWT3 range where, as soon as you’re done firing, you go down to the butts and you can see every single shot that you made. You get to pull out the old notepad, you get to see “okay, I made this one call incorrectly at 300 metres,” there will be a couple of coaches down there that are going to give me that coaching. So, you’re going to learn from the experience that you just went through. And again, it’s the same day. It’s the same amount of ammunition. It’s just the mindset that’s a little bit different. And, what you end up seeing is that the CAFSAC style ranges end up running much more quickly. So, we could do a PWT3 with those same fifty people in two hours, and get more training value out of it. But again, it’s just out of efficiency.

So, I guess I’ve kind of identified a problem. But, the solution to that, to me is, often you’ll have a young officer in charge of the range. So, what you could do is have him or her paired with a young corporal or someone that has experience in the competitive shooting world to just kind of help run the range. So, again, if we were to pull back to my experience, at my home unit, where what ends up happening is they’ll say: “hey, you know, Corporal Fortin, you’ve got quite a bit of experience. Would you mind helping this junior officer run the range?” So, again, the officer is doing the administration of the range. But Corporal Fortin is now helping with the efficiency of the range. To make sure that people are not just firing rounds to fire rounds. You’re firing rounds to be in a training environment—so you can actually learn from your mistakes and you can kind of feast on your successes. So, just a small change that can easily happen that makes a world of difference.

Lt Orton: You know, when you’re working in these environments, whether it’s CAFSAC and you’re doing competition shooting, or on a conventional shooting unit range, there’s a lot of work that goes into it, getting things ready, getting your gear ready to go. If you’re in competition, you’re thinking competition and performance. If you’re on a conventional range, then you’re also perhaps concerned about doing your best. And, there’s a whole bunch of other tasks going on. It’s a pretty demanding environment, and it’s all very serious, heavy, army stuff. How do you stay relaxed and loose in the face of these pretty intense situations?

Cpl Valcour: Yeah, I don’t think a lot of people realize how mentally and physically taxing shooting can be. So, one of the things that I was introduced to when I joined my team was, if you score a perfect score, which is, fifty out of fifty, you get an ice-cream. And under no circumstances can you have an ice-cream unless you shoot a perfect score. So, when you’re at lunch or dinner after just being out on the range, and you see someone having an ice-cream, everyone on the team is like holy shoot man, like good job. It just fosters that positivity. Another thing is that, we’ve always preached that you’re not shooting against the other shooters—the reality is, if I shoot my absolute best, and I come in dead last, I’ve shot my best and can’t control what other shooters are doing. So, that’s something we try to foster in our team as well, where you’re shooting against yourself. So, just because corporal so-and-so fired twenty points higher than you, that’s not in your control. You do your absolute best that day and that’s one of our tools to try and keep morale high is that you’re on your own; you’re kind of the bus driver of your own shooting journey.

Lt Orton: I like that. It sounds good. So, do you have any closing points before we wrap this thing up?

Cpl Valcour: Yeah, I think I just want to say that I am very fortunate to have had a long and relatively successful shooting career. And, a big part of that has been the kind of behind the scenes work on people who administrate CAFSAC. Through that, it has allowed me to travel internationally to go back to my unit as a relative SME and to help disseminate this information. But again, if it wasn’t for CAFSAC, there’s no way my career would be where it is today—so I’m definitely just feeling very grateful.

Lt Orton: Well, thanks a lot, Corporal Valcour. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us about this stuff. For those listening at home, don’t forget to subscribe, give us your ideas—either through the email address on the podcast notes on the Canadian Army social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Thanks again.

[Music Starts]

Cpl Valcour: Thanks for having me sir.

Lt Orton: Stay frosty.

[Music Ends]

Lt Orton: Welcome to the after credits scene where we discuss acronyms. Cue classical music.

[Classical music commences]

Cpl Valcour: TOETs.

Lt Orton: Test of Elementary Training.

Cpl Valcour: PWT3.

Lt Orton: Personal Weapons Test, Level 3.

Cpl Valcour: NCOs.

Lt Orton: Non-Commissioned Officers.

Cpl Valcour: CAFSAC

Lt Orton: Canadian Armed Forces Small Arms Concentration. SME, Subject Matter Expert. Thanks for listening.

[Classical Music Ends]