654 Ikfnas of tbe 1Ro&, IRffle, anb 6un 



Prize, though this last year at Bisley he was for the 

 ninth time among the Queen's Hundred, and has been 

 very close on the heels of the winner more than once. 



Only one man has been as often among the Hundred 

 as MacVittie, and that is Parry, of Cheshire, who has 

 also been nine times among the select band of weeded- 

 out competitors and yet has failed to win the Prize. 

 Caldwell, another famous marksman and a fellow- 

 countryman of MacVittie's, has been eight times in 

 the Hundred without gaining the object of his ambition. 

 Major Pearse, of Devon, who has also been eight times 

 among the Hundred, was fortunate enough to win the 

 Queen's in 1875; whilst Bates, of Warwick, Cortis, of 

 Sussex, and Pullman, of Somerset and South Middlesex, 

 who have been respectively seven and six times in the 

 Hundred, have each carried off the Blue Riband. 



But, though he has failed to win the Queen's, Mac- 

 Vittie has carried off most of the good things at 

 Wimbledon and Bisley. I suppose no living rifleman 

 has won more prizes or made more profit out of rifle- 

 shooting than the canny marksman of Dumfries. I 

 have never known a steadier shot, year in and year 

 out, foul weather or fair. Perhaps his best shoot was 

 in a triangular match at Hawick in 1885, when with 

 a Eraser's Martini at 200, 500, and 600 yards, Queen's 

 conditions, seven shots at each range, he scored 102 

 out of a possible 105, making 19 consecutive bull's- 

 eyes out of his 21 shots. It was a long while before 

 that score was beaten, and, in fact, it never was beaten 

 with the Martini- Henry. But with the Lee-Metford 

 Colour-Sergeant Matthews, of the Civil Service Rifles, 



