DEFENCE NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 876, 23 July 1910, Page 12

DEFENCE NOTES.

o [Br Echelon.]

IN DEFENCE OF THE BULL'SEYE. [LETTER BT A CbACK SjIOT.I The following article, by "'Robin Hood," in support of bull's-eye shooting, is contributed by a rifleman who stands at the present day in the front rank of New Zealand marksmen, and ia noted ior the breadth of his views upon all questions affecting the national sport of rifle shooting. There is muoh food for serious reflection in what he says, and even those who may be inclined to disagree with the arguments he adduces in. support of his views will acknowledge the sincerity of his- purpose—the maintaining of national efficiency with the rifle. The whole subject is still a matter of keen controversy at Home, and has also been argued to some extent here. " Robin Hood," however, has broken fresh ground in several places, and his article should furnish the basis of an interesting interchange of \iews among locul marksmen and military men. Here is what "Eobin Hood" says ("Echeon" does not necessarily acoept any responsibility for "Eobin's" opinions) :— The Gordon Highlanders' Trophy. "So much hns been said of late years by military mc-u of the uselessueso of bull's-eye shooting that as a shot_ of some -years' experience I feel constrained to put pen to paper in defence of this much-abused target. I will not go so far as to say that military men do not know what they are talking about, but I must say that some t>f their utterances and actions with regard to shooting make one wonder whether they have ever .fired a rifle. At anyrate, it is clear to one who has nmde a study of the art that tnev have never taken into consideration the limitations of the weapon, or that it takes many years of patient study and practice to enable a. rifleman firing deliberately to' consistently hit a mart, even at some of the shorter ranges. Take, for instance, as a sample of military wisdom in the matter of shooling, the conditions of the Gordon Highlanders' match, won by New Zealand for the last two years. These conditions were drawn up by the officers of the .Gordon Highlanders, men who should know something of the art of war and should at least know a rifle. The teama are drawu up at 1200 yards distance. "Forty rounds of ammunition are served out to each of the e-'ght men in the team. The teams advance from the distance named, and at about 1100 yards the figure of a man pointed khaki appears over the mound for a few seconds. During that time the men load and bra in the positiou that best suits the inequalities of the ground.- Five times the lurget appears, the teams advancing m the intervals between the appearances. \t the fifth appearance the men have arrived within SUU yards of their objective. New Zealand romped home in Australia with 5 hits to its credit, and, in New Zealand, the- last match, with 7 Mts. Snap-Shooting, and Sniping. • "Now, how can any sane person ask a rifleman to snap at a target at rangca at which he has to exercise every possible care and all his judgment to even get the bullet on a 10ft. x lift, target? The slightest quiver or tho least pull of wind not allowed for at these ranges, and the bullet goes exploring the hillside. Yet that is what the men id command ot the famous Gordons ask the man behind the guu to do. T maintain that under tha conditions laid down a man could spend a lifetime at his practice tor tins onu match, and then could not make a certainty of getting even one shot home. Then, again, in warfare what commander would be idiotic enough to start bis men. snapshooting at Ihb- enemy uC 1100 yards, and expect to do them any serious damage? Why. half-a-doam men lying down quietly and firing deliberately at that distance would do as much damage in a given time as a whole regiment of snapshootera. The eight men who represented Now Zealand hit the man seven times in twenty minutes. Ono good shot; lying at 1000 yards out of harm's way, and firing-deliberately, could in that time put nearly every shot of twenty at least into the khaki. ' "It has always appeared to me a strango thing that the advocates of this so-ctdlea 'service shooting' are either men who have never been heard of as shots, or are rank failures at the game. Without exception, every shooting man I.know, and I have met a few, is in favour of bull'seve shooting as a method of training. Major Itichardson, the famous English shooting captain, who had charge of the last British team which visited Australia (than whom there are few more experieuced shots living) issued a challenge to the shooting reformers: 'Give me the pick of bull's-eye-trained men who have competed in such teams matches as the Kolapore Cup, the China Cup, and others; I will give you the pick of all the servicetrained shots you like, and will fire yon a match under your own service conditions for .£loo.' The challenge has not been accepted. Major Kichardson is snre of his ground—his opponents are not. The whole agitation against bull's-eye shooting has arisen from ignorance of the rifle, and tho work necessary to make a shot. I might also add a flavour of jealousy of the successful 'pot hunter,' as he is called. Talking of the last-named gentleman moves me to say that no man, not even Arthur Ballinger, ever got ahead of expenses in rifle shooting. That is, talcing the shooting all through. Store Rifles Not Perfect, "But, to return to my main point-. These reformers make a big argument of using the rifle as issued. If the rifle as issued were taken by a good shot to any ran&e, at point-blank distance, aud fired as sighted, it is questionable whether the bullet would hit a haystack, let alone a man. Even at two hundred yards, with the present ladder sight—which is hopelessly out of date—the slide has to oe raised in .nearly every instance to ovei the three hundred yards mark in order to get a good hit, and the same thing holds good at the other ranges. Again, not one rifle in twenty fires absolutely dead in. It throws either to right or left. Now all these things have to be discovered and corrected liv <"he rifleman, and it takes some years of experience to enable a man to "know how.' Yet your advocates of 'service shooting' would only put a man through his recruit course at fixed targets, after which, he is doomed to waste ammunition, vainly trying to find the sighting of his rifle at moving objects and in rapid firing. Of course, these wonderful quick-firing shoots at the Hythe School of Musketry will be trotted-out against us. But they seem to forget that the records of these men are made by men who were good bull'seye shots prior to undertaking these tests—they know their rifles. SergeantMajor Wallingford, the man who figures largely in the returns, is probably the finest bull's-eye shot in the world, and if an unbiased opinion could be got from him I have a pretty good idea what method he would advocate. "Of-course, it is hard to getamanwho has taken part in these tests to givn an opinion. He is a permanent subordinate officer, and he knows that his superiors arc opposed to bull's-eye shooting, consequently he is not going to air an opinion that will adversely affect him. He is told to teach a certain system, and ho does it. A well-known shot; a permanent instructor, said to mo one day, in discussing the matter, "No one likes bull's-eye shooting better than I; do, but I can't advocate it, because it is not to my interest to do so. The powers that be say' that it is not Hie thing, and so I have to keep quiet.". And so military discipline loses us innnv advocates. "Now, I don't wish it to be thought that I am. against the teaching and practice of rapid-firing, ami' the uso of figure targets. I am strongly in favour of a limited amount of practice in this manner at short distances only, but at least 75 per cent, oi the shooting done should lie at fixed targets, to enable the shot to know his rifle and perfect his judgment of the effect of wind, light, etc. To my mind, that is the main thing. AVhat is the uso of a man pitching thirty shots a minute at a target if he misses the lot, and cannot tell whether it is, the rifle, the unsteadiness of his aim or the wind, or the light, or one of tho dozens.

of things that upset a rifleman? A man shooting deliberately has some chance of gradually working on to the target, but the quick-firer has all his attention takeu up with the manipulation of his rifle, and has no time for the finer and necessaij points of the game. "It takes something like a million bullets to kill a man in. active warfare. Goodness knows how many, millions it will take when the 'service' training , cranks have.had their way—the increase will be considerable. Taking the Trenthem meeting- as a guide, has it never struck the military authorities that almost invariably the service matches are iron by well-known bull's-eye shots, and very often by club men, the branch of of our service that has least -practice under service conditions? I have attended a few meetings, and I haye never yet seen a man trained for these special matches do anything at them yet as compared with the first-class man, who does the few shots only that are pre--scribed by regulations. Few, riflemen do less 'service' training than- the New South Welshmen, yet the servico aggre,,'uto at the last meeting was won by me of their number (W. Cutler), and all of them had good aggregate scores. "All this goes to show that the bullVeyt trained man is 'all there' when it comes *;o quick-nring, and my advice to the military authorities is: "Encourage your riflemen, instead of spoiling his snort Oivo him practice in rapid-firing, , colour your targets, and alter their shape in sumie practices if you will, but let the basis of the training be bull's-eye shooting, and plenty of it. It is his sport He'll get from it the necessary skill in hnding the target, the clear eye, the cool brain, and the steady head, and when ii comes to the time when he has to meet the enemy, he'll hit him, and hit him hard, instead of merely scaring him foi Uie time being, and leaving him free for : i return pot at the first possible oppo> I tunity.'"