660 ifctn00 of tbe 1Rofc, 1Rtfle t an& Gun 



My experiences of the great annual meeting of the 

 National Rifle Association are almost entirely confined 

 to Wimbledon. I have only been twice to Bisley, and 

 the place did not commend itself to me, partly, perhaps, 

 because of the abominable train service. That the 

 general average of shooting, tested by results, has 

 marvellously improved goes without saying. But this, 

 of course, is owing to the vast improvement in the 

 military rifle. The Lee-Metford is so immeasurably 

 superior as a weapon of precision to the Martini-Henry, 

 not to speak of the Enfields and Sniders of my early 

 days, that it is most absurd to compare the scores now 

 made with those made thirty and forty years ago. 

 Nevertheless, to score 92 out of 105 in the first 

 stage of the Queen's, as Corporal Betts, of Norfolk, 

 did with the Snider in 1877, was a finer feat of 

 marksmanship, to my thinking, than anything accom- 

 plished with the Lee-Metford in 1900. 



But, it may be asked, are the ruck of riflemen better 

 shots to-day than they were twenty or thirty years ago ? 

 There are, no doubt, more men who can shoot well now 

 than there were then ; but I do not think that the 

 present-day marksman is any better than his pre- 

 decessor of old Wimbledon days. I hold that a crack 

 marksman is born, not made ; and the qualities which 

 made a man a good rifle-shot thirty years ago will 

 make him a good rifle-shot to the end of time. I doubt 

 whether we shall ever see any better longe-range 

 shooting than was made with the old muzzle-loading 

 match-rifles five-and-twenty years ago. Mr. J. K. 

 Milner, of the Irish team, made a highest possible 



