The Safety Range.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 293, 9 December 1902, Page 1

The Safety Range.

A rifle range of but thirty yards in length and allowing of perfect practice with the Army service rifle and ammunition has recently been most successfully experimented with at Aldershot (says a Home paper). Those who have conducted tne trials are enthusiastic over the results, and it is probable that at all suitable military depots the new safety rifle range will be shortly installed. No tube is used, and the shooting is wholly in the open air. Tba penetrative power of the LeeEnfield rifle when loaded with service ammunition has hitherto rendered it impossible to give recruits that practical experience of firing so necessary to steadiness and good marksmanship without journeying to the nearest rifle butts, entailing loss of time and expense. The new range, however, overcomes the difficulty. The tiring end is a sort of box " lunnol "on ifgi. TLa marksman is compelled to siund well within it in order to rest his elbows. His rifle muzzle protrudes slightly towards the target beyond the other end of the " tunnel," the four sides of which, however, check the rifle from being turned too far either to left or right, top or bottom. Some distance from the " tunnel " is a wooden shield, tightly backed by tan or shingle, and having an open " doorway." No shot can be fired from the tunnel that does not go through the " doorway" towards the target or embeds itself in the shield. Beyond this again ai e wing shields to stop shots ricocheting from the " doorway" sides, and other shields near the target ensure absolute safety towards the sides. Ninety feet from the rifle the target is backed by an impenetrable wall. No bullet can go over the top of the target, as all bullets that go clean through the shield " doorway " must strike the target, and those that do not must be intercepted by the shield. The target bears a " bull" of about half an inch, and is equal to an Bin " bull" at 500 yards. It can bo varied to suit other distances, as the rifle sight is corrected accordingly. The great advantages of the new range are its perfect safety, its.moderate cost, and the immense value it is to recruits who accustom themselves tp the weight, hang, pull, report, and kick of the ordinary rifle and the ordinary ammunition before being taken to the butts.