Marksmen scores

First World War Audio Archive

Marksmen scores

Transcript

Five days after we were there we went on a shooting competition,

Hill 62 Memorial Belgium.

we went to the ranges like and there’s ten of us. As I say, we all made marksmen scores, you know, the ten of us guys there. So they called us out one day. We were on parade and all our

Courtrai Memorial Belgium.

names was called out and the following men fall out and somebody says, “That’s what you get for shooting good. You’re going to France. Instead of that fellow naming me, that’s what you get for

Le Quesnel Memorial Belgium.

your score. You’re going to France.” They picked us out for a shooting competition and that’s when we started. Just quickness of the bolt and, you know, practising. That’s all we did. We did

Gueudecourt Memorial France.

no other training. Then they took us, after we beat all the different bunches around home, they took us to Aldershot and we were shooting against the British army, British and everybody.

Dury Memorial France.

And we went out, and the whole ten teams, there was ten teams and we beat the whole doggone works. So we got eight days leave,

Monchy Memorial France.

I think, maybe it was five days leave. Five days leave and some money. I went home to see mother. We just had certain targets to

Passchendaele Memorial Belgium.

hit, you know. We had finished in twenty one seconds, ten rounds. Quickness of the bolt was mostly what we was practising.

Masnières memorial France.

See, we’d keep the bolts well oiled and everything and we could click and reload. We had to reload every five, every round you’ve got to reload. There’s ten in the magazine. We fired ten

Bourion Wood Memorial France.

rounds and the last man pulled the trigger at twenty-one seconds. So you can see we trained. We were the first to shoot too,

Courcelette Memorial France.

you know, first team. And we kept wondering how all the other boys was gonna make out. Fellow says to me, “Where’d you learn to shoot?” I says, “On the farm.” Well I had a .22 when I was 12 years old or a little older, about thirteen. So I bought a .22

Beaumont-Hamel Memorial France.

and I used to shoot everything. I even used to shoot mice with it out in the barn, the cow barn. I taught myself. And then I got

St. Julien Memorial Belgium.

a .30-30 after that, that’s a bigger rifle. I went out hunting coyotes. That’s where I got my real training, you see,

Canadian National Vimy Memorial France.

hunting deer and coyotes with a .30-30. You’re getting up to pretty near the same size as an army rifle.

Description

Mr. Featherstone describes the success of Canadian marksmen in shooting competitions while at Bramshott. He relates how he had taught himself to shoot a rifle.

John Stephen “Jack” Featherstone

John Stephen “Jack” Featherstone was born in Oxridge, England, on September 29, 1898. His mother was unable to care for him, so he emigrated to Wolsley, Saskatchewan, at the age of twelve. He was a farm labourer and enlisted March 1, 1916, but being committed to care for the local preacher’s farm, couldn’t report until fall. Mr. Featherstone arrived at Bramshott camp in England, where he was selected for the shooting team. He won a marksmanship competition at Aldershot in June, 1917, and joined the 46th Battalion in November 1917, following Passchendaele. Mr. Featherstone describes action at Vimy and Amiens. Following the war, he returned to farming until 1922, when he joined the Canadian Pacific Railway as a fireman. Forty years later, Mr. Featherstone retired as an engineer and resided in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

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