The Daily News WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7. WRONG-HEADED SHOOTING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8060, 7 March 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7. WRONG-HEADED SHOOTING.

s Tub Tiontham Championship Kifle ] Meeting commenced on Monday, There are four hundred riflemen ' shooting at the targets there. Every ' man who fires in most of tiie matches knows exactly the distance lie is from . the target. lie knows the exact .strength of the wind, He will paint his sight anil put a line down the centre. He will probably reverse his back-sight, He will have a kit ol shooting gear comprising many things no man ever went to war with. In most of the competitions he will be allowed two minutes to get each shot oft'. Woe be to the misguided spectator who coughs or laughs 01 talks when he is shooting for " pots." c • t B Hifle-siiooi'ixu is of the very greatest and gravest importance to this or 1 any other country. It does not follow, however, that because a man is a. great shot at the targets that he is a good man witli the rifle when the game is alive. Milroy, 1904 champion, a splendid shot in the ordinary target application of the term, owned that he had never shot at anything alive in his life. Perhaps he eoulo . iiit anything at an unknown range, but probably not. The rifles that the men who shoot at Trenthaui will use are made purely and simply for war purposes. Any shooting that is done with a service rifle should be I done under conditions similar to r chose that would obtain in war-time, t The splendid range at Treiltham has been carefully and "scientifically pre- '• pared for the great slaughter of targets. Lven the grass has teen cut down so that potential soldiers may . get a clear sight of the enemy. It is uardly the soit of thing one would j expert in time of war.] *** * I

fun country lad wlio wanders about olio bush with a rillo, but not with , >;iiut-pots, wind gauges, " verniers," •amp-black, and other paraphernalia of the "pot-hunter," is probably a better unit of defence than the cro"hoty scientific shot who gaze:through an orthoptic long enough to lot the enemy get from hero to tilt Breakwater, and under cover. The ■supposition is, of course, that, if the inan with the orthoptic and all the rest of it was robbed of the gear and :iis two minutes'grace, lie would pull the trigger and the bullet would hit che wide, wide world. * * * ie Tub present system of target rifleshooting is all wrong. When th< Jiiemy comes ho won't telephone hi.:ixact distance in yards, and he won'i stay long enough in one spot for the scientific shooter to send to the mai. in charge of the waggons' for his favourite pot of lamp-black. There should be no such tiling as a marked Iring-point in a rifle-range. There should be 110 lings, wind gauges, 01 any other devices that arc not part of the ordinary rille. The volunteers ol riflemen who were taken out into unknown country with ball ammunition, and made to -fire at unexpected ranges, would be much more likely to become efficient shots for the purpose for which they are recruited than the men who break their necks and upset their tempers trying to get the "aggregate" at Disley or Trentham. » * * *

Tiik pot-hunting expedition to Bis!ey by coloniril riflemen is mainly n failure. As an advertisement for New Zealand it is a pretty poor investment, and as for it doing the art of rifle-shooting in New Zealand any good the idea is absurd. It certainly lias the effect of giving the most scientific shots a nice little holiday at the expense of the State, but that is the sum-to till of the utility of the periodical trip. Encourage rifleshooting by all means, but discourage " pot-hunting." Most of the pots " are won with the inventions of clever Frenchmen or Germans, and not by the skill of the " pot-hunter " with the rifle. And the only thing a modern shot, is not allowed to have is a vice to hold his rifle and a man to hold him. In fact, on the whole he is a ridiculous circumstance, and he ■should he robbed of his kit of extras iiid made to use a gun, not a scientific workshop.