FOREST AND STREAM 
455 
October, 1921 
A NEW TARGET FOR THE HUNTER 
THE ARTIFICIALITY OF THE MODERN TARGET SUGGESTS AN 
INNOVATION TO CONFORM TO ACTUAL FIELD CONDITIONS 
T ARGET shooters in general can 
be classified under two heads : 
those who indulge in range prac- 
tice for the pleasure they get 
from the making of good scores, and 
those who see in target practice an aid 
to better rifle shooting: in the hunting 
field. The former go in for a number 
of refinements that are impracticable in 
the field. They use micrometer screws, 
blacken their sights, grease their bullets 
and do many other things for which the 
big-game hunter has neither the time nor 
the desire. These refinements are all 
right on the target range when a man 
is firing slow fire (without a time limit), 
because he can assume any steady posi- 
tion that he desires and dig himself in, 
test the wind, take 
the pressure, the 
temperature, etc. 
But the hunter in 
a great many cases 
is pressed for time, 
so that wind, tem- 
perature and pres- 
sure are the last 
things that occur to 
•him when the oppor- 
tunity arises for a 
shot at big game. 
Still, there are cer- 
tain points that can 
be learned on the 
target range that are 
valuable to the big- 
game hunter. The 
general principles of 
firing against a tar- 
get must be under- 
stood by him, in fact, 
become second na- 
ture to him before 
he can hope to have 
success in the field. 
The target ordina- 
rily used by target 
shooters consists of a black circle of a 
diameter varying with the range he 
shoots from, getting larger as the range 
increases. In aiming at this bull’s-eye 
the target shooter brings the tip of his 
front sight up until it is tangent to the 
bottom of the bull’s-eye, and he sees a 
fine white line between the tip of his 
front sight and the bottom of the bull’s- 
eye. Theoretically, he should make a hit 
in the center of the black bull’s-eye, and 
everything else being equal, should con- 
tinue to do so with the same hold and 
the same elevation of his rear sight. So 
far so good, as far as the target shooter 
alone is concerned, but how about his 
brother, the big-game hunter, who is 
shooting on the target range merely to 
educate himself for the more serious 
business that comes after, namely, the 
dropping of a big buck or the smashing 
of a bear in the field? 
The target best adapted for a hunter 
By MAJOR JOHN A. CONSIDINE 
is one which most closely approximates 
shooting conditions as they are encoun- 
tered in the field. By this I do not mean 
that if we are going to hunt deer our 
target must be a moving one, but that 
it will, as far as aiming conditions and 
hits are concerned, be identical with 
conditions in the field and not be dis- 
torted to fit artificial conditions that 
arise solely on a target range. 
In order to bring this idea out more 
clearly let me for a moment discuss 
several forms of aiming and marking 
hits on the target range that have been 
used both here and in England. All 
methods include a black bull’s-eye or 
figure and certain other lines which mark 
the limit of the values of your hits. For 
a time it was considered best to aim 
directly in the black bull’s-eye, aiming 
off for windage or change in elevation. 
Again, on the arrival of the wind gauge 
and sights susceptible of slight changes 
in elevation, the corrections were made 
on the rear sight and the point of aim 
maintained on the center of the bull’s- 
eye. 
The theory of this method of aiming 
- — hitting where the front sight rests — is 
correct, but in practice it did not work 
out because of the many refinements that 
crept into target shooting about this time 
and because it did not give one a definite 
point at which to aim. 
This method of aiming gave way to 
the method of seeing a fine white line 
under the bull’s-eye at six o’clock, be- 
cause here you always had the same 
definite point at which to aim and got 
the outline of your front sight and rear 
sight on the white part of the target. 
For target shooting this method of aim- 
ing worked very well and got fine scores, 
but few considered the fact that at 100 
yards it required one to aim 5 inches 
below the point where he actually de- 
sired to strike. On the target range this 
error was corrected by raising the rear 
sight in order to allow for the lowered 
point of aim. In other words, you are 
actually firing at 100 yards’ range but 
using, say, 150 yards’ elevation on your 
rear sight. This system, then, in order 
to attain high scores, introduced a fun- 
damental error into target shooting. It 
was of no practical benefit in the game 
field because the conditions it introduced 
were irreconcilable wdth the actual con- 
ditions met there. Later we came to the 
present method of 
aiming on a target, 
that is, bringing the 
tip of your front 
sight to tangency on 
the bull’s-eye at six 
o’clock. While this 
system is superior to 
the one which pre- 
ceded it, it still in- 
cludes that funda- 
mental error of 
striking higher than 
you actually aim. 
T TNQUESTION- 
ABLY much 
better scores are 
made on the target 
range since using 
the present target 
and methods of aim- 
ing. The conditions 
introduced to make 
it so, however, are 
entirely foreign to 
actual game prac- 
tice. If target prac- 
tice and the making 
of bull’s-eyes are the ends desired, then 
our present system of range methods is 
well-nigh perfect. If, on the other hand, 
hits against game are desired the system 
not only leaves much to be desired, but 
as practiced at present is fundamentally 
wrong. 
Target shooters have lost sight of 
their mission, for instead of making tar- 
get practice a means to an end, they 
have gone the limit and made it the 
end itself. The ideal rifleman of to-day, 
apparently, is not the chap who can drop 
his deer with one shot, but the chap with 
his micrometer wind gauge and whatnot, 
who can lie in the prone position and 
make a long string of bull’s-eyes by in- 
troducing a highly artificial condition in 
his method of aiming and marking. I 
like target shooting myself, but cannot 
help but feel that it has gone far beyond 
its field in introducing artificial condi- 
( Continued on page 468) 
K 
: x 
Y 
Scale, 1 inch = 1 foot. 
Diameter black bull and circle X equal 8 inches 
Diameter circle Y = 20 inches; K is center of circles X and Y 
