FOREST * AND j STREAM? 



131 



f7(* f #* 



possible attainments was thought satisfactory. The 

 American riflemen, in tlie first few years of the. movement in 

 this country, deserve full credit for the sacrificing spirit in 

 wbieh they have performed an enormous amount of drudgery, 

 and in a 'labor of love have upheld the American honor ana 

 name in critical moments. Mug-hunting has been almost un- 

 known on our ranges. Emulation runs high, and goads the 

 most backward to at least some study and effort, but the bulk 

 of the shooting is for honor alone. The California team, 

 ■within a few days- past at Creedmoor, have enjoyed no per* 

 sonal gain from their visit. The Crescent City experts have 

 visited this national range after months of patient drill, simply 

 to enjoy the honor and satisfaction of victory should it fall to 

 their lot, or in their defeat to cheer their superiors. Among 

 the British marksmen, though the amount of general effort 

 among the masses of the English people in the way of rifle 

 practice is incomparably greater than in this country, the 

 practice is carried on in an independent sort of way, and when 

 a marksman at the longer ranges has reached a certain easy 

 he contents himself with believing that he is an ex- 



T1IE KTHSI DAY, 

 The morning of the 13th opened upon a busy range. By 

 daybreak the dwellers in the tents at Creedmoor were up and 

 stirring. The sky and its appearance were most earnestly dis- 

 cussed, and many were the surmises ventured upon the nature 

 of the. day. During the early morning hours a heavy fog- 

 rested over the range. But the preparations went on, Rain 

 or shine the. match was to come off. Once the day is fixed 

 nothing short of a downright pour can compel an adjourn- 

 ment of the work. By 8 o'clock the crowds began to fill the 

 range. The trains from Hunter's Point went down with full 

 loads. The team men of the American party, arrived at the 

 range ground bv 9:30, and soon after the British team men 

 came down the line from their Garden City rendezvous. The 

 general public, too, came in liberal numbers. High and low 

 alike were there, from the laboring man to the man of abund- 

 ant leisure and wealth, who had allowed his patriotic feelings 

 to carry him to an investment of thousands on the event. 

 Ladies were present in large numbers, and they certainly dis- 

 played a great amount of persistency and pluck in sitting 



avert, 



pert rifleman, and rests on his record. The rifleman is never through the heat of the day watching the uprising and down- 

 iest in his team, and the merit of united effort to which per- going of the marking- disks, and with pencil and memorandum 



if the progress of the match. The range 



THE INTERNATIONAL MATCH. 



Victory has again rested with the American marksmen, and 

 for the second time the International Centennial Trophy is pre- 

 sented to the home team. Against what should he by all 

 rules of logic the best team in the world, as comprising the 

 selected champions from the three foremost rifle shooting 

 countries of the earth, the American marksmen have shown 

 themselves more than a match. The struggle of the 13th and 

 14th of September, 1877, is memorable in many respects. In 

 it the sides were made up of the very best long-range marks- 

 men at present known. Fine weather permitted the men to 

 shoot up to the very top notch of their ability ; and while the 

 victors have run up the figures very far toward the marvel- 

 ous, the score of the losing group is noteworthy as leaving all 

 previous recorded scores very far in the shade. As an exhi- 

 bition merely of what wonderful accuracy may be gained by 

 intelligent, persistent drill in the use of a weapon, which in 

 turn commands our admiration for itself and its makers, the 

 match is an event of which too much notice cannot be taken, 

 while as a competition our feelings of patriotic pride have 

 been aroused and fully gratified. It was a noble victory; 

 broadly conceived, ably conducted and magnificently con- 

 summated. Looked at from any standpoint, this battle be- 

 fore the butts at Creedmoor carries with it suggestive lessons, 

 and points out lines of effort which we doubt not will be 

 properly carried out. That a team of men, not one of whom 

 five years ago would have been able to do other than the wild- 

 est sort of luck shcoting at the long ranges, should meet and 

 defeat a team of old and tried veterans, who for nearly four 

 times that period have been working zealously in efforts 

 looking to the improvement of the small-bore match-rifle, and 

 necessarily of all classes of small-bore ordnance, demands an 

 explanation. To say it is luck will not do. God helps 

 those who help themselves, and if Fortune has seemed to in- 

 cline most graciously to the stars and stripes, it is because 

 our representatives have been most persistent wooers of the 

 coy damsel, and have carried on their advances through the 

 channels of hard work and hard study. The difficulties 

 which have been strewn through the path of the would-be 

 long-range, champions have been many and severe, but one by 

 one they have given way ; have melted away before the com- 

 bined zeal and fervor of shooters and gunmakers, all deter- 

 mined and united in the solution of the problem of how best 

 to construct and operate a long-range rifle. It would seem 

 when such scores as 319 in the possible 325 are made, some 

 little allowance should be made for personal aberration, and 

 the record be looked upon as closed ; but it is not the spirit 

 of the rifleman to let, well enough alone, and now with such a 

 score before him it is the ambition of many a long-range 

 shooter to "go one better," and trench nearer still on perfec- 

 tion. But of the match : On both sides of the field the rival 

 squads did their very best. There were no complimentary 

 misses or toning down of the score, that their "friends, the 

 enemy," might not be left so far in the distance, but in the 

 preparation for the contest and in the precautions taken or in- 

 sisted upon, neither of the teams bated a single jot or tittle. 

 Everything which might lead to success was secured, and, 

 conversely, nothing which might help in the slightest degree 

 to get an increased score was omitted. 



Had the men been shooting for their very lives they could 

 not have fought a more gallant and careful battle, or made a 

 more determined resistance. The result was not a surprise. 

 "We have pointed out, not recently, but years since, wherein 

 the American riflemen had grasped the secret of success in 

 several points— in their team system, in the discarding of the 

 old deer-stalking position for either of the many varieties of 

 the back posture; in the rifles, possessing as they do all the 

 merits of the muzzle-loading system with the additional ad- 

 vantage of the open-breech action, and in the disregard of all 

 precedent of old standard scores by which the capacity of a 

 rifleman or the capabilities of his rifle were gauged, "With 

 the American shooters nothing short of the 



sonality is merged in the struggle of the squad never seems to 

 have been accepted as a part of the English rifle shooter's 

 code. lie does his best, but does not — because he has never 

 learned to do so — give a really helping hand to his brother-in- 

 arms. He may try to do so — may give advice and proffer as- 

 sistance — but without understanding precisely what sort and 

 degree of assistance is needed, It is more than hkely his off- 

 hand judgment to " put on a bit more wind." or "come down 

 a point in elevation," may do more harm than good. This 

 difference of method, of material and of metal explains the 

 gap which exists between the home and foreign teams. Until 

 the visiting riflemen recognize some of these points, to which 

 their defeats may be so clearly traced, they will go on butting 

 their heads and misdirecting their efforts against the solid 

 front which the American compactly organized teams can 

 present. A "fluke" may throw a match into the hands of a 

 "duffer" team, or a bit of carelessness may put a really 

 strong team into a nominal position as vanquished; but with 

 the two teams shooting at the very top of their bent the 

 Americans must win, simply because they do not omit certain 

 precautions which are helpful to success. The match proves 

 this, though it is not impossible that in the ups and downs 

 of various matches, a slip, to which all are liable, or bad luck, 

 that indefinite something which is so convenient in explain- 

 ing, may bring an acknowledged inferior team to the lead. 

 It will still be undeniable, in view of their performance in this 

 and other matches, that the Americans possess a knack at rifle 

 shooting which all may acquire if they but pursue the same 

 mode of obtaining it. 



In return for their care in preparation, for the time and 

 effort and study they have put forth in training for this great 

 battle of the butts, the American marksmen have the satisfac- 

 tion of knowing that they stand to-day champion riflemen of 

 the world, with the champion score, representing a real and 

 not a mere nominal victory. They have not only beaten their 

 immediate antagonists, but they have surpassed the record and 

 put a white stone in the history of modern rifle practice. 

 They have met the English small-bore expert at his own 

 favorite game, and have " gone a great many better." They 

 have furnished a high measuring notch for tlie riflemen of the 

 future to gauge their efforts by. They have decided by the 

 most emphatic of demonstrations that American breech- 

 loaders are capable of the very finest class of work, and that 

 were the riflemen perfect in judgment and in holding, the 

 ride would meet all his demands in the way of scores. The 

 riflemen have furnished a subject for talk, and have drawn 

 the attention of the public to a sport at once healthful, pleas- 

 ant and untouched by any debasing or annoying surroundings 

 or tendencies. The victory has been gained by fair, open 

 shooting. There was no trick, not a single accidental advan- 

 tage to help the Americans to the place of honor. It was 

 sheer hard work, close watching and system which enabled 

 the comparatively new made, thousrh terribly earnest, Ameri- 

 can marksmen to gain the fight against the more experienced 

 shooters from the British Isles. To those who paid Creed- 

 moor a visit during the struggle was given an opportunity of 

 witnessing the greatest rifle match yet fought. It did not 

 possess the nip and-tuok interest which a fight waging now 

 this way and now the other would have, but in the magnifi- 

 cent manner in which the one squad forged ahead the contest 

 was of intense interest. The eager way in which the crowd, 

 or a portion of it, would watch a bulletin board and specu- 

 late on the chances of this or that marksman adding to a 

 string of perhaps a dozen buU's-eyes already his, showed that 

 it was really a match against perfection ; and a centre, excel- 

 lent though the marksmanship might be which brought it, 

 was looked upon with regret, while a miss rose to the dignity 

 of a calamity. It was recognized as a match against the 

 record, and every point was jealouslj r watched for and scru- 

 pulously guarded. But the victory went where every com- 

 petent and unbiased judge supposed it would go — to the team 

 which, in its make up and its methods, followed the rules 

 which should, a priori, lead to the most satisfactory results. 

 And there was no disappointment. Free to accept anything 

 which promised to lift them a single point in the group for 

 high scores, the American riflemen and riflemakers have tried 

 many devices, many twists and turns and little odd expedients 

 which promised to help them on, and from the mass of ex- 

 periments have settled down gradually to a mode of procedure 

 which the more it is worked the more wonderful the recorded 

 results become. Again and again the home team has meas- 

 ured its skill against the experts from abroad— and at their 

 own ranges — and as the secret of their success was not appli- 

 cable to one range alone, the Americans steadily held the first 

 place. In the match of the past few days they have met and 

 whipped the best team which the world, outside of their own 

 area of selection, can produce. Sir Henry Halfordmade no 

 apologies for his team before the match, nor docs he to-day. 

 He said it was the best team he could call together, and freeyl 

 acknowledged that in beating it the Americans would place 

 themselves really and beyond dispute the champion riflemen 

 of the world. The British fought hard, struggled with nerve 

 and vigor, and showed many points of merit. But they 

 were self-condemned to defeat, in that they had failed to ac- 

 cept certain fixed and definite rules which govern the Ameri- 

 can team selection and practice, and which, to judge from the 

 results, most certainly possess merit. Matches may be won or 

 lost by a "fluke," but no such accirlents operated in the 

 match of this week. There were accidents; a few unac- 

 countable misses were placed upon the score ; but in fully 99 

 per cent, of the failures to find the bull's-eye the omission can 

 be distinctly traced to some error of judgment, some change 

 of wind or some material cause and reason. The majority of 

 ninety-two points merely indicated the amount of intelligent 

 extra" care which the one tegm had taken and the other team 

 had ore ; 



going < 



pad keeping tali , 



looked as gay as'a great ninety-acre lot, as flat as a billiard 

 table, and with nothing more picturesque about it than rows 

 and groups of tents, gayly decorated with bunting and stream- 

 ers, could look. But while the ordinary spectator was taken 

 by the general outwardness of things, the shooters and those 

 posted on the ins and outs of rifle, practice watched the wind, 

 or, not to be so keen-sighted, watched the flags as they napped 

 lazily from their poles, and guessed as best they could of the 

 probable vagaries the fickle element might choose to play 

 during the day. " As the wind goes, so goes the match," was 

 acknowledged by friend and foe alike. A fish-tailer was the 

 burden of the Americans' prayer, not that they particularly 

 loved the bother of a wiggling, cross-centre wind of that sort, 

 but they knew such a breeze would perplex the foreigners the 

 more and increase their own chances of success. Another cruel 

 wish was for a day of good, fervent heat. _ Under such a visi- 

 tation they knew the Irishmen and Englishmen would wilt, 

 and a shooter who feels thoroughly used up by the weather 

 surroundings can do little in the effort of a rifle match. 



The day, in a rifle-shooting sense, was nearly perfect. It 

 was hot, terribly so, for the champions confined to their work 

 on thegreat sun-burned lawn of Creedmoor, but the wind did 

 not try to do its worst, and the light, while glistening, was 

 bright enough to give a clear view of the target. Under these 

 conditions, and with the tremendous spur of patriotism and 

 emulation under which the two teams i ought, it is not at all 

 surprising that the day's record shows a score which baa 

 never yet been equalled on any range, or in any match, or 

 practice or general competition. 



Captain Sir Henry Halford, of the British team, announced 

 that Colonel Chas. Lennox Peel would act as his referee, while 

 on the American side this honor wa3 confided to Colonel H. 

 A. Gildersleeve. These gentlemen met, and, tossing for 

 places, the flip was won by Colonel Gddersleeve, with the 

 understanding that the American targets of the first day should 

 be the British ones on the following, and vice versa. 



Four targets were in position toward the centre of the 

 grounds, in two groups of a pair each. K and AV were the 

 designations, staring out in white emphasis from the butts 

 over one pair of slabs, while with a blank target inter X and 

 I were the names of the other targets. Colonel Gildersleeve 

 chose the first-named group to the left, and when it was re- 

 membered what slight wind there was came from the 9 o'clock 

 quarter, the very proper policy of giving the enemy yon r 

 smoke was carefully followed by the shrewd American referee. 

 Colonels Peel and Gildersleeve also decided upon an umpire, 

 and this post of dignity, but little work, was offered to and ac- 

 cepted by General Joseph R. Hawley, ex-President of the 

 Centennial Commission, and himself a thorough rifleman. 



The targets once assigned, the riflemen and their aids 

 busied themselves shaking down into working order, and it 

 certainly is no small degree of good tacking to get the tele- 

 scopes, miniature targets, scorers' post, coaches' position, and 

 the teams so grouped about the firing point that no one shall 

 be more than is necessary in the way of others, and none shall 

 be cut off in view either from the teams or the targets. The 

 shooters must sit as near as possible to the firing rug or spot 

 where they drop to twist up for the shot, and must also have 

 plenty of room in which to wield their cleaning rods, lay out 

 their ammunition cases, and not find themselves at all crowded 

 by inquisitive onlookers or by each other. The spotters must 

 have their miniature targets plainly in view of all the team men, 

 that no craning of necks or undue twisting of bodies should be 

 necessary in seeing the graphic record ot their doings. The. 

 official scorer must see the shooter and the result of his effort, 

 that the work may be properly noted down. Then there are 

 the coaches, old tried riflemen, who sit where they can see all 

 and offer now and then a little word of advice. By watching 

 the flags, vane, smoke and other indications of change of wind! 

 the coaches are often of value in giving an early report of 

 some new twist or sudden quirp of a fraction of a point. The 

 coach must be one who can 



Distinguish an«l divide 

 Apufl' 'uvixt soui.ti ana soutinvest side — 



and a good deal closer, too, to be of any service to a squad of 

 riflemen, to whom the merest touch of a gust means a .slip oil 

 the bull's-eye. 



At target K on the American side, Dakin, Jackson, Hyde 

 and Alien were stationed ; at target W, next to ttje rir" -\ 

 Weber, Blydenburgh, Jewell and Bruce tired. Over on the 

 British point the assignments were : tiigby, Ferguson, o\,.,,s 

 and Milluer to target X; and on target 1, Sir Henry Halfoicl, 

 Lieut. -Col. Fenton, Humphry and G. Fenton. The privilege, 

 of stationary; check-scorers at the. opposing targets was taken, 

 and Mr. Y. K. Armitage on target K, and Captain Bowiby 

 on target W, represented the British interest, while Major 

 Fulton on X and Colonel Hitchcock on I were the delegates 

 from the American side. In the butts, ton, it waa necessary 

 to secure perfect impartiality and accuracy in marking and 

 have a responsible representative from each of the teams at 

 each of the targets. On W, B. Doughty and C. C. Peterkin 

 represented the home and foreign interests; on K, J. MeGlcn- 

 sey and A. M. Eraser acted ; on X, M. E. L. Wells, of Wave) - 

 ly, X. Y., and Sergeant W. H. Gilder, of the foreign party ; 

 while on I, Leon Backer, of the Twenty-second Regiment, 

 and E. V. Thompson acted. Colonel E.'Tl. Sanford acted as 

 general superintendent of the butts, and from thai end of the 

 field good work was the rule. To secure ready communica- 

 tion with the men half a mile off in the sunken pits, a telephone 

 had been carried along, though very few were aware that the 

 lit lie- box posted on a bit of board to the right of the range 

 was really a mouth-piece and an eai'-trumpetto the men in lire 

 butts. The official scorers were Sergeant Bank'm, 

 Twenty -third, at target X; Corporal Story, of the sam 



