Tag Archives: canadian rangers

Stirring news from the Great North!

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Updates from Ice Camp, 1 CRPG, and the Marines in Norway.

So much great content has been coming from Ice Camp 26 (Boarfish), which is running for three weeks in the Beufort Sea with the surfaced USS Delaware (SSN 791) and Santa Fe (SSN 763)— marking the 100th American ice surfacings, along with personeel from U.S. Marine Corps, Air National Guard, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force, French Navy, Royal United Kingdom Navy, Norwegian Defence Research Institute, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

Beaufort Sea, Arctic Circle – Operation ICE CAMP 2026 participants from Arctic Submarine Lab, Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center Detachment San Diego, Underwater Construction Team (UCT) TWO, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation Science, and various U.S. Navy commands pose for a photo at ICE CAMP Boarfish 2026, Mar. 17. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jacob D. Bergh)

Add to this the stuff coming from the 2,800-mile snowmobile-borne High Arctic sovereignty patrol of the Yellowknife-based 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group (1 CRPG/GPRC), which is visiting 17 remote communities across the country’s arctic regions. The patrol has reached Naujaat and Hudson Bay, and is finally turning South.

1 CRPG GPRC Canadian Rangers Long Range patrol at Kugaaruk radar station

1 CRPG/GPRC Canadian Rangers Long Range patrol at the long abandoned circa 1903 NWMP barracks, on Hudson Bay’s Cape Fullerton

Finally, check out this great U.S. Marine Corps video by Sgt. Noah Masog highlighting Exercise Cold Response 26 in Norway.

Looks terrible. Where do I sign up?

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As part of long-running (since 2007) Op Nanook-Nunalivut, a joint exercise in the Canadian Arctic, the Yellowknife-based 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group (1 CRPG/GPRC) has begun its snowmobile-borne High Arctic sovereignty patrol.

Supported by Joint Task Force North and the Royal Canadian Air Force, the patrol will cover some 2,800 miles over the next several weeks, literally showing the flag, as well as visiting and engaging with 17 remote communities across the North who like to know that “someone” is out there in all that snow and ice.

1 CRPG/GPRC Op Nanook ’26

I have to admit, I almost want to move to the Yukon just to volunteer for the Rangers and ride along on one of these!

On a side note, the Army National Guard/Alaska State Defense Force needs to stand up such patrols in the more remote regions of Alaska, reversing decades of closing historic small community NG armories. 

RCAF unit getting Ranger rifles

Of note, the RCAF’s No. 440 “Vampire” Transport Squadron, JTFN’s primary air unit, is co-located at Yellowknife and operates four CC-138 Twin Otters, enabling them to “conduct year-round, all-weather missions including on-skis/tundra tires” throughout the Arctic.

The unit recently upgraded their predator defense rifles aboard each plane to the same Colt C-19 (Tikka T3 CTR) .308s that the Rangers use. The standard service round for the C-19 is the C180 cartridge, which uses a Nosler Accubond 180-grain Trophy bullet over a pretty stout load, in the interest of having to stop polar bears.

Or random Russian commandos, just saying.

A closer look at Canada’s most niche survival rifle

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Meant primarily for emergency hunting and fending off polar bears rather than parting the hair of a Russian submariner, the C19 rifle is definitely unique to the needs of those that use it.

In the above video members of the Canadian Rangers are shown in Newfoundland meeting their newly issued .308 Win-chambered bolt guns for the first time and getting the 411 on nomenclature and the rifle’s specifics. Based on the Sako T3 CTR (Compact Tactical Rifle) with tweaks for the Rangers as they have to use their guns in whiteout conditions at -50 C weather.

The cold weather testing, by Colt Canada, who is making the C19 under license from Sako.

Said differences include an oversize bolt and trigger guard so that it can be used with heavy gloves (you don’t want to touch metal with bare hands when it’s that cold) as well as a high-viz laminated stock complete with the Ranger crest.

More on the C19 over in my Guns.com column.

Rangers can still make their Enfields sing

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With their vintage .303 No. 4 Lee Enfield rifles being phased out, the part-time soldiers of the Canadian Rangers are standing tall at the Canadian Armed Forces Small Arms Concentration.

The military shooting competition, in which some 450 shooters from Canada’s Regular Force and Primary Reserve, Canadian Ranger Patrol Groups, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and teams from the United Kingdom and the United States are competing, was first organized back in 1868.

Held from September 5 to 17 at the Connaught Ranges and Primary Training Centre in Ottawa, it will be one of the final competitive shooting competitions in which the Canadian Rangers will use the Enfield, which is being replaced by the Sako/Colt Canada T3 CTR (Compact Tactical Rifle) rifle in .308.

While the Canucks plan to destroy surplus Enfields left after the conversion, those Rangers currently with them will be gifted their guns.

(Photos: Corporal Doug Burke/Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Center)

Note the Enfield competition belts to hold spare mags (Photos: Corporal Doug Burke/Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Center)

(Photos: Corporal Doug Burke/Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Center)

(Photos: Corporal Doug Burke/Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Center)

The below video from the Canadian Army, which shows some No. 4s at work at the Small Arms Concentration, details Sergeant Cyril Abbott of the 5th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. Abbott served 20 years active with the Black Watch and 2 RCR, and has spent the past 32 years with the Rangers, giving him an impressive 52 years with the Colours.

Meet the new C19 rifle of the Great North

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RE27-2015-0236-08 Members of the 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group perform target practice with the new C-19 Canadian Ranger rifle at the rifle range in Inuvik, Northwest Territories during Op NANOOK 2015, 17 August. The rifle model currently used is the Lee Enfield. While the stock of rifles now in use are excellent tools for an Arctic environment, their replacement with modern rifles is an exciting historical moment and are being used for the first time by the Canadian Rangers in Canada during Operation NANOOK 2015.

RE27-2015-0236-08 Members of the 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group perform target practice with the new C-19 Canadian Ranger rifle at the rifle range in Inuvik, Northwest Territories during Op NANOOK 2015, 17 August. The rifle model currently used is the Lee Enfield. While the stock of rifles now in use are excellent tools for an Arctic environment, their replacement with modern rifles is an exciting historical moment and are being used for the first time by the Canadian Rangers in Canada during Operation NANOOK 2015.

The C-19 is based on the Sako T3 CTR (Compact Tactical Rifle) but, seeing as the Rangers have to use their guns in whiteout conditions at -50 C weather, their version has an oversized bolt and trigger guard so that it can be used with heavy gloves (you don’t want to touch metal with bare hands when its that cold) as well as a high-viz laminated stock complete with the Ranger crest.

These 10-shot .308s are replacing the elderly SMLE in Ranger use.

And in a twist, the rifle will be made under license by Colt Canada. This means that, while Colt in the U.S. fights to stave off bankruptcy, its Canadian arm will be looking to hire as many as 30 new employees.

Canada Stalls on New Ranger Rifles

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The frozen far north of the continent, most of it above the Arctic Circle, is patrolled by a group of part time soldiers known as the Canadian Rangers. This force of some 5,000 volunteer locals are armed with rifles that in some cases date to the First World War. Canada is now crawfishing on buying them new guns for budgetary reasons.
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk.com

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