Shooting match

“ When three men had thus fired, signals were made by drum, flag, and bugle, and the firing ceased. The marker then came out and pointed to the bullet-mark on each target, and having patched up the holes he returned within his mantelet, and the firing was resumed. This very safe and simple method of ball practice is much better than that used in our military shooting. ”

“ But just as the majority were never heard of when George Osbaldeston, Lord Kennedy, Horatio Ross, Coke of Norfolk, Colonel Anson, and the rest, were shooting matches, so it may very well be that the best shots of our day never shoot in big 90parties, and are not known as good shots at all. There are still large numbers of shooters so much sportsmen that they think of woodcraft and sportsmanship first, and only of marksmanship as a secondary and necessary accomplishment. ”

“ Another and last hint is always to find out from the keeper who posts one, not only the exact position of the next guns—information he usually volunteers—but also, if they are invisible to one, the limits of one’s own field of fire. Nothing is more disagreeable than at the end of the drive to find out that, by shooting perhaps a little further than was expected, one has shot beasts really belonging by all rules of venery to one’s neighbour. ”

“ Should any reluctance, or hesitation, be shewn by the injured party, to accept these Bills, he is shewn into a long room, with a target at the end of it, and several pistols lying about, where he is given to understand that these sharpers practice a considerable time of the day in shooting at a mark, and have arrived at such perfection in this exercise, that they can shoot a pistol ball, within an inch of the mark, from the common distance taken by duellists. ”

“ March and shoot, shoot and march! The enemy’s shot rain hard; our bullets fly windward. The battle has become fierce.
Until we have pierced the body of the foe with our shot, we must continue to harass them with our fire. The bayonet is the finishing touch; the guns must play a large part in a battle. So, therefore, we must be very careful in shooting. When the fighting once begins, we begin to dance from the top of the head to the tip of the toe, we lose ourselves in excitement, but that does not do. ”

“ The best we could probably do, on an average, at fifteen to twenty paces, would be to put three to four bullets out of six in a playing-card, which would be good shooting at a man, but Bill can put every ball just where he wants 'em to go. ”

“ In narrating long shots that I have made, I recount them as bright moments in the hours of sport; they are the exceptions and not the rule. I consider a man a first-rate shot who can ALWAYS bag his deer standing at eighty yards, or running at fifty. HITTING and BAGGING are widely different. If a man can always bag at the distance that I have named he will constantly hit, and frequently bag, at extraordinary ranges, as there is no doubt of his shooting, and, when he misses, the ball has whizzed somewhere very close to the object; the chances are, therefore, in favour of the rifle. ”

“ Now and then one waits with the butt on his hip: one swings his gun anyhow in one hand like an umbrella: a third tosses it over his shoulder with the hammers down and the trigger-guard up, and jerks the muzzle over when the game rises. Except in snap-shooting, when the gun must of necessity be held already half-way to the shoulder, it matters very little which the sportsman does, nor from what position he raises his gun. ”

“ Taking Aim.—The best shots do not take aim by sighting along the barrel of the pistol, holding it out at arm’s length after the manner of the wooden figure standing in front of the city shooting-gallery. They do not close one eye and turn sideways to the object of aim like the ideal duelist, but they hold out the pistol, look at the object (not the pistol) , with both eyes open, and blaze away, usually putting the bullet about where they want it to go. There is really no aim-taking in the case, any more than there is in the case of a boy playing at marbles. ”

“ We can’t afford to waste shots.’
So the three commenced to fire steadily and in turn, each waiting after the other’s shot to see if a man fell, each calling to the others in triumph if a man went down after their shot, growling angrily [101] if the shot missed. They made good shooting amongst them, the man in the middle of the road an unmistakable best and the Canadian second. ”

“ Marking and Scoring.—In all matches new paper targets shall be furnished for each competitor. Not more than ten shots are to be fired on any target at 50 yards, and not more than five shots on any target in Matches C, D, E, and F, and for all shooting at 20 yards; the shot holes in all cases to remain uncovered and left as shot. Bullets touching, striking, or within a line on the target are to be scored the count of that line. The eye alone shall determine whether a bullet touches or not. ”

“ Stocks, Loops, Stops, Cases.—In ordinary rifles do not have the stocks made the same shape as in your guns. Most sportsmen miss birds by shooting under them, but with a rifle more game is missed by being shot over. ”

“ As a rule, the shots you get are fired from the top of [Pg 76] one mound at a sheep on the top of another, and unless you are using a rifle with a very flat trajectory, and have (as all men should in Central Asia) a rough mental table, to suit your own eyesight, of the distances at which an eye or an ear would be visible, you are extremely likely to throw a great many shots away. ”

“ Herbert answered. "Shooting is a good deal like anything else that's lots of fun; you've got to love it and study it and have good eyes and then practise. And then, too, there's the gun. You've got to have a perfect gun to make A-1 scores and to do any fancy shooting." ”

“ To the guns who are posted by the organiser of the beat little advice can be given, except to obey orders, stick to their posts, be careful not to shoot at anything until it has passed them—or, at any rate, at anything which is in such a position with regard to the beaters and other guns as to make it unsafe to fire—to keep their attention concentrated upon the business in hand, to make all arrangements for concealment and ease in shooting directly they are posted, and then to keep quiet. ”

“ They do not observe that in the interval between pulling trigger and the shot leaving the barrel the gun has travelled past the game very considerably, and what they have observed is the relative position of gun and game at the time the trigger gave way. For their class of shooting, therefore, they must look for less daylight between gun and game than the person of quick perception, who sees most of what there is to observe. ”

“ Shooting schools cannot help a shooter to learn to kill curling pheasants, swerving partridges, wrenching grouse, or zigzagging snipe, but they can teach the quick firing and changing of guns. And to one not in practice it is this quick firing that puts a shooter out of touch with gun and game, much more readily than swerve, wrench, zigzag, or curl. ”

“ The result was that having an interesting course with plenty of rifle shooting competitions, together with occasional mild cricket and football, officers and men were able to concentrate upon the work in hand, and certainly their shooting improved with amazing quickness. ”

“ A regular attendance upon numerous target matches of more modern times, with all the modern appliances, in the hands of marksmen with national reputations, has never shown us better shooting at sixty yards, off-hand, or one hundred yards with a rest. ”

“ As in all cover-shooting, there is some danger in this sport, especially when the party is a large one; and at a season before the leaves have fallen from the trees. Each sportsman pursues his own course, without thinking of others; and, as the birds may be either upon the ground, the wing, or perched upon the lowermost branches, guns are not always pointed to the sky. With shot flying about, and now and then the bullet of a rifle, one might be excused for feeling a little nervous. ”

“ Still, in this matter of rifle shooting their dilettanti practice through a window, at the short range of 200 yards, seems really childish when compared with that of the manly groups at Wimbledon, where, on the open heath, in sun or drifting hail, the burly Yorkshireman meets with the hardy Scot, and sends his heavier deadly bullet on its swift errand right away for a thousand yards in the storm. ”

“ See Rohne, Schieszlehre für die Infanterie, 3rd Edition, p. 85. “The importance of the line shot (i.e., a hit on the vertical stripe through the center of the German bull’s-eye target) in the marksmanship training of the soldier should by no means be underestimated, but rather appreciated at its true value. The line shot forms the basis of known distance firing, just as the latter forms the basis of field firing. Instruction in line shooting (i.e., hitting the vertical stripe of the German bull’s-eye target) becomes a moral factor of the highest value in field firing. ”

“ Then on occasion it is necessary to shoot from all sorts of positions, and it is disconcerting to have any one commenting. I prefer to be able to sit down fair and square so that both knees may be elbow rests; but, alas, not often the opportunity is given in big game shooting to choose your position. ”

“ As a result one gets hard cross shots but has the advantage of seeing every bullet strike, as the soil is very dry at this season. This makes interesting shooting. One gets game enough to keep the camp in meat and not enough so that he feels like a butcher. ”

“ Competitions for trained soldiers should include not less than three different forms of shooting, such as snapshooting, rapid firing, observation, appreciation of fire limits, etc., with as much variation of targets and conditions as can be conveniently arranged, according to the facilities available. ”

“ The shooting was done at a target set up against a tree some distance behind the gymnasium building; and the boys did their practising under the direction of Captain Dale.
"It requires considerable practice to become an expert shot," said the military instructor. "Once in a while we find someone who is a natural-born sharpshooter, but that is very rare. Some of the best shots in the army are men who, at the start, hardly knew how to handle firearms." ”

“ I always leave the ground when I see men doing this. There is style in every pursuit, and style in pistol shooting consists in economy of movement and time and especially in timing one’s swing, aim, and trigger-pull so that they go together and throw the bullet on to the mark. ”

“ In rapid fire practice the timing is done at the target. On a signal that all is ready at the firing point, the target appears and remains exposed during the time limit, then disappears.
In addition to the above regulation practice, the men are put through a thorough preliminary course of position, sighting, and aiming drill.
The more expert men are given advanced practice in snap, double-action, and left-hand shooting, also firing alternately at targets at different distances and at floating objects at unknown distances. ”

“ And when the target is brought on board between the runs to be repaired for use again you can understand why the men crowd around it while the umpires examine the rents to see if they made any mistake in their decisions and you can also enter into the feelings of some young fellow who has done the shooting at it and has to repair it, as he looks at it and sees only three hits, for example, out of five shots, while he fairly moans: "I'll never get over this as long as I live. ”

“ Should they advance instead of stopping at this juncture, the game will start off again at a trot, possibly at a gallop, and may rush past the sportsman all huddled together, the best head in the middle of the herd, and well protected from a shot by several intervening females; whereas, if the beaters stop when they see the game getting near the ambushes, the game, after having a good look at the beaters, will continue to advance at a walk, and may stop altogether within range, and give a capital chance for a successful shot. ”

“ In order not to hamper your adversary in a competition, it is of the utmost importance to study every one of your words and acts. What does not worry one man may entirely put another off his shooting. Moving about whilst he is shooting, leaving the firing point as he is firing, is enough to put him off his shot, and should be strictly avoided. ”

“ We are shooting from the two hundred yard mark, sitting position, and since I have watched a few rounds, I am able to tell you the way of it.—As the guns become silent with the disappearance of the targets the Lieutenant calls, “Next men up!” Those who have just shot rise and nervously stand aside, to watch the scoring of their ten shots. The new men, while loading and locking their pieces, also watch the record of their predecessors. Passing behind D Company a few minutes ago, I saw the flag cross one target six times. ”

“ For a man may hit a target every shot at 30 yards, and yet cannot hit a man at 30 feet if the man is also doing some shooting. In my wanderings I have met one 127really wonderful shot who could, with a Colt’s 44 frontier 7-inch barrel, hit a tomato can almost every shot at 40 yards. I have also known men, who were considered very good shots, stand at a distance of fifteen paces and empty their guns at one another without either getting a scratch. There is a saying throughout the South that the best weapon made is a double-barrelled shot-gun and buck-shot. ”