A RUNNING-MAN TARGET.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1021, 10 January 1882, Page 4

A RUNNING-MAN TARGET.

The mode of rifle-practice in use in the army and among our Volunteers has recently been the subject of much discussion in the newspaper press, •and its efficiency has, among authorities qualified to judge, been gravely ■doubted. This has been especially so since the war in the Transvaal, when the very remarkable superiority of the Boers, compared with our English soldiers, as shots, was unquestionably determined. Our marksmen had hitherto practised at fixed and conspicuous objects, at regularly measured distances, and with all the leisure and opportunity that was requisite to raise shooting inlj., something like a fine art. And, practised within these lines, the pursuit did in many instances assume the precision and elegance of a fine art, and the ability to strike a fixed object at a given distance, had, in the case of many individuals, arrived as nearly as possible at perfection. But shooting on a practice ground, and shooting in the excitement and hurry and confusion of a battle-field are two quite different things. To hit a moving object at 300 yards, when tkat moving •object has also a rifle, and can return our shot, is not quite the same thing as striving to make bull’s-eyes on an iron target, with nothing to distract the mind or unsteady the nerves. Hence, our military authorities are beginning to acknowledge that, though they cannot introduce to the practice•ground the danger and smoke and •commotion of an actual engagement, they can so far meet this deficiency by Accustoming our soldiers and Volunteers to hit an object moving at lesser •or greater distances, and at various rates of speed. In view of this change in the training of marksmen, Mr W. B. Blaikie, of Edinburgh, has invented and patented what is called a “ Running Man Target,"” which can be obtained at a price which places it within the reach of every Volunteer corps. The target is of stout millboard, cut to represent

a man, life-size, and painted to the fancy of the shooter. It is suspended from a wire, along which it runs, and can be worked by one man, who, while •operating, is protected in the ordinary marking-butt or mantlett, and who does not require to leave the butt, but ■can signal the hits without leaving cover. It can be erected on any ground, rough, smooth, or sloping; and one or more targets can be run at the same time, and at any pace up to 20 miles an hour. On rifle ranges, by an ingenious combination of two or more machines, the moving target can be made to appear at unknown distances each time, giving the riflemen the opportunity of practisin snapshooting. The targets, besides being light and cheap, can be patched on being struck, and are said to stand a good deal of hitting. Several military authorities, and among them MajorGeneral Sir Frederick Roberts, has seen the target in operation, and are of opinion that it is likely to prove a success. The full measure of its success is, of course, a thing of the future ; but there can be uo doubt, as to the necessity .for some such moving apparatus on the practice-ground, is forcibly shown by what happened in June last, at the annual meeting of the Edinburgh and Mid-Lothian Rifle Association, when the above runningman target Was tried, and out .of 200 shots fired at it individually, and in volleys, the “man” was only struck thrice !