THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 119 
which provided free support to National Rifle Association clubs as 
follows: .30 U. S. Springfield rifles, targets, flags, target carriers, 120 
cartridges per member for Springfield, gallery muskets .22 calibre for 
indoor shooting with cartridges for same, expenses of a team to 
National match; also furnishing of a skilled instructor for each club; 
indoor and outdoor ranges complete, with labor, clerical services and 
all paraphernalia for comfort and convenience to members; but, ‘‘vain 
hope’’—those twelve peaceful, truckling, selfish political tricksters in 
the United States Senate caused it to be lost when they conducted their 
never-to-be-forgotten (either by the public or themselves) filibuster 
against upholding the honor of the United States. It is to be hoped 
the new Congress will pass the bill, as most of its members are favor- 
able to it. 
Formation of a local rifle club is simplicity in its primary form: a 
few men with initative and inclination are the prime requisites. In 
the initial stage of organization two things are absolutely necessary 
if permanency and harmony are desired, viz.: adequate finances and 
system. <A rifle club must be conducted along the same lines as a 
personal business venture, and any deviation therefrom will surely end 
in disaster. The initiation fee and dues should not be placed too low, 
for, although it may serve as an inducement to large enrollment, it 
redounds to the detriment of the club in the end; large membership 
means increased expense, and income per capita must correspondingly 
be increased; yearly dues of a dollar or two can only produce either 
pcor equipment or a deficit at the year’s ending, also it affords an 
opportunity to join the club and pay a dollar merely to order a large 
quantity of supplies and then drop from the rolls, leaving the club 
in no manner benefited by their brief and mercenary association; 
these fellows are likewise prone to become knockers afterward. 
After a member is enrolled it is good business to retain him, and 
to accomplish this a reasonable amount of comforts and conveniences 
must be furnished, for time is, or should be, of value to all, and the 
expenditure of several hours of a day or evening with makeshifts, 
is discouraging, to say the lea’t. 
Members to remain in good standing should be required to shoot 
record targets at least once per month, otherwise they are of little 
benefit to either the club or themselves; each should be assignd a 
certain evening of the week for practice, thus avoiding confusion and 
affording all equal opportunity. Records of each evening’s shoot 
should be kept in a suitable book, thus affording a means of ascer- 
taining yearly average of all participating. Teams should not be hand- 
picked by officers, but selected from among those making highest 
weekly score; keen competition should be encouraged, but jealousy and 
envy discouraged; fifty members pulling together will be more of a 
success than one hundred striving for individual glory. 
Executive officers have it in their power to make a club a success 
or failure; as they are efficient and harmonious, so will their organi- 
zation be, or, vice versa. I have been a gun lover always; have owned 
or handled practically all makes of firearms; shot both large and small 
game, and been a constant reader of sporting and outdoor magazines, 
therefore felt reasonably certain that I was pretty well posted on the 
shooting game, but, since joining the Portland Rifle Club I have added 
to my repertoire a great many valuable pointers of which I was 
formerly ignorant, or of which, at best, I had but a faint idea. The old 
adage that, ‘‘Ignorance is bliss,’’ certainly applies to the shooting 
man with a vengeance. 
We all agree that snap shooting at a deer running through the 
brush doesn’t allow much time for careful estimation and adjustment 
for windage, elevation, trigger pull, etc., but all shooting is not done 
