Some Wfmble&on throes 663 



as she is by the very nature of her civilisation, can 

 ever hope to reproduce a race of sharp-shooters like 

 her old yeoman-archers. 



But small as are the opportunities an ordinary 

 Englishman has of making himself an efficient, practical 

 marksman, they are rendered of less use than they might 

 be by the system of teaching him to shoot. In war and 

 sport a man has to find his target, to pick it out from 

 surroundings calculated to render it indistinguishable. 

 Yet the only training our riflemen have is at the most 

 conspicuous object it is possible to imagine a black 

 butts-eye on a white target ! Neither in sport nor war 

 will any object remotely resembling the regulation 

 target ever present itself to the sharp-shooter. I don't 

 believe much in moving targets, but surely it would 

 assist the budding marksman to realise what practical 

 rifle-shooting in war is like if the stationary targets were 

 of kJiaki colour instead of glaring white. Perhaps now 

 that khaki has superseded scarlet as the uniform of 

 the troops it may occur to the wiseacres of the 

 War Office to substitute khaki targets for the present 

 white absurdities. 



Then, the next thing which a practical sharp-shooter 

 in war or sport has to find is the range at which the 

 object of his aim is distant. I would, therefore, have 

 these khaki-coloured targets at unknown ranges, and 

 allow each competitor a couple of sighting shots to find 

 the range. For range finding or judging distance is 

 a qualification as necessary to the practical marksman 

 as straight shooting, and should count equally to his 

 credit The hero of Bisley should not be the man who 



