dromia wrote:Yes I do and so does any gunowner with a modicum of intelligence, it serves no purpose other than help Mercer meet his income target.
The reasons as to why the RSO is sh!te are clearly explained in the thread, it adds nothing to range safety, but does add to the NRA's income.
While I tend to agree with all the above, it's not clear to me that there is now any way to get qualified as an RCO without taking the RSO course first.
Unless you join the army and I'm far too old to go through all that again.
Which makes no sense as you used to do the RCO course cold with just a recommendation from the club sec....which is why some need screening to be honest, but doing an RSO ( ) course wont guarantee any knowledge or experience anyway.
The need for the RCO is to check and complete the range register and to understand some of the range specific drills, butt flags, lost comms etc. It is as likely an Insurance requirement as well but requires no real training (and cant be taught at Bisley as they dont have any butts with galleries that require the markers to move through the danger template other than Stickledown, where they stay until the range closes). It does not cover SARTS or ETR console use either.
As regards joining the Army, it makes no difference. My All arms range quals (expired or otherwise) mean nothing to the NRA and in fact it takes longer to convert than to simply do the RCOs course.
Not from what we can get out of the various NRA people who actually run the courses (and who are also not happy with the extra RSO course being brought in).
From what I can gather the MOD asked why the NRA course only took 2 days and the Army version took a week or more.
Instead of explaining that the NRA course (in general) is taken by shooters with years (or even decades) of hands on shooting experience whereas the Army course is based around the lowest common level of knowledge (which includes people who've never even fired a rifle before), has multiple stops for tea/meal breaks and also covers a lot of things that civilian RCO's are never required to do the NRA simply said OK well we'll just run an extra course (and have no interest in making money out of it at all, honestly).
There's room for all Gods creatures, next to the mash and gravy :)
phaedra1106 wrote:Not from what we can get out of the various NRA people who actually run the courses (and who are also not happy with the extra RSO course being brought in).
From what I can gather the MOD asked why the NRA course only took 2 days and the Army version took a week or more.
Instead of explaining that the NRA course (in general) is taken by shooters with years (or even decades) of hands on shooting experience whereas the Army course is based around the lowest common level of knowledge (which includes people who've never even fired a rifle before), has multiple stops for tea/meal breaks and also covers a lot of things that civilian RCO's are never required to do the NRA simply said OK well we'll just run an extra course (and have no interest in making money out of it at all, honestly).
perhaps they should have asked the Army why in these times of austerity, the Army was taking 3 days longer to run the same course ?
PS I believe you answered it correctly
phaedra1106 wrote:Not from what we can get out of the various NRA people who actually run the courses (and who are also not happy with the extra RSO course being brought in).
From what I can gather the MOD asked why the NRA course only took 2 days and the Army version took a week or more.
Instead of explaining that the NRA course (in general) is taken by shooters with years (or even decades) of hands on shooting experience whereas the Army course is based around the lowest common level of knowledge (which includes people who've never even fired a rifle before), has multiple stops for tea/meal breaks and also covers a lot of things that civilian RCO's are never required to do the NRA simply said OK well we'll just run an extra course (and have no interest in making money out of it at all, honestly).
perhaps they should have asked the Army why in these times of austerity, the Army was taking 3 days longer to run the same course ?
PS I believe you answered it correctly
Having done both I can assure you that the course at the S of I is anything but written for idiots. It expects you to know your stuff and you can get binned on any of the phaze tests, however there is a certain amount of revision as different arms will be more familiar with some bits fo kit and assumption is the mother of all F.... As I stated, you can pass ranges and fail instruction, but you cannot fail ranges and pass instruction. What it does cover is a lot of hands on running of ranges from barrack range to live field firing (emotional). It works your situational awarness and fitness so yes, it covers a s*** load rarely (if ever) encountered by most shooters (with decades of bad habits, own opinions and prejudices). I guess they just wont drop their standards. Recent events in Scotland with that trainee sniper demonstrates what happens when you do that and assume. A lot of the facts and figures are pointless as you have no way of measuring most of them as an RCO or safety bod, you just need good situational awareness, experiance of what might go wrong, and familiarity with the systems in use...... lowest common level of knowledge..... Jog on sunbeam
So what's it all about, then, what do you need to know that's not covered by the RCO course?
Pete
"Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum" Lucretius
You're offended? Please explain why your inability to control your emotions translates into me having to censor my opinions....
Pete wrote:So what's it all about, then, what do you need to know that's not covered by the RCO course?
Pete
This is what I dont get, more divisions for the sake of it, and more room for confusion/error...although you can now charge someone twice for the RSO then the RCO course.
The only difference I can see is that one should allow you to run an MOD range (sign for it legally), but as we never actually got tested on the lost comms and butts change procedure....pretty critical for MOD gallery ranges.
Jog on sunbeam 
