THE RIFLE TEAM'S VICTORY. A Few Words to the Point.

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 213, 30 July 1904, Page 6

THE RIFLE TEAM'S VICTORY. A Few Words to the Point.

IT would be an excellent test of the real marksmanship of the New Zealand Bisley team, which is doing so well at Home, if, on their return to the colony, it shot some matches under entirely new conditions Everyone is very proud of the winners of the Kolapore Cup and various other "pots" and prizemoneys. Regarding rifle-shooting as a mere branch of sport we have every reason to be proud of the marksmen now at Home. But, the men are all members of the Defence Force of this colony, armed with service rifles made not for Bisley shooting but for enemy-slaying.

It may not have occurred to the shooters themselves, or the "pothunters" who eagerly scan the cables for the latest successes, that the good those marksmen are doing is infinitesimal. They fire under fixed regular conditions. They may use all sorts of scientific paraphernalia to assist the rifle, they know exactly the distance of the target, and the state of the wind. They are winning "pots," and not potting the King's enemies', and as "sports" they are upholding the reputation of the colony. Suppose, when they returned, the Bisley team were taken into the back-country, with bare rifles and ammunition — common service ammunition — and were made to fire at objects the distance of which they could only guess at ? Do you think that men who have never shot without accessories would make a better score than a deer-stalker or a kan-garoo-shooter? Most probably not. The enemy when he comes isn't goings to allow the New Zealand marksmen to pace off the distance he happens to be from the firing point, and he is not going to wear a white* waistcoat with a black bull's-eye on his chest. Neither will he carry a flag to show whether the wind blowing is a "fishtail" or a southerly gale. * • • The said enemy would be in the next county if the regulation twominutes is allowed between shots, and, worst of all, he will have the insolence to return the fire. A lot of twaddle is talked about "firing under service conditions," but no shooting has ever taken place in New Zealand under such conditions. Although we shall whoop with the rest of the crowd when Colonel Collins, Champion Ching, and Co. come marchinghome, we shall whoop for the verniers, the paints, the inverted sights, the flags, the range-finders, and the black and white targets. * * • We will believe that the champion shots are better able to defend thecountry than a recruit who has just passed his class-firing when we see the champions alongside the recruits firing at an object the same colour a* the country, at an object which the officer tells him is 500 yards away and is probably 1000. A man dodging about targetless country with a rifle, gathering in shooting knowledge unattainable on a range, is the man who should get the sharpshooting billet "when the country calls."