OKEHAMPTON EXPERIENCES, 1892. 
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trenches and a solidly built stone redoubt, the wall of which was about 
3 feet thick. Percussion shrapnel, fired against the breast-work, went 
through and burst on the inside, but, as might be expected, did no 
material damage to the parapet. The same projectiles, however, were 
used against the stone wall with great effect, and though the smoke 
prevented accurate shooting, the 8 or 10 shell that struck brought 
down a great deal of the wall and strewed the interior of the work with 
splinters of stone. The redoubt would have been quite untenable from 
the quantity of flying debris . It would have been interesting to note 
the relative effect of the long and short range infantry fire, but unfor¬ 
tunately it was not considered practicable to count hits till the close of 
the operations. The result showed the infantry hits to be about five 
per cent, of the rounds fired, and the artillery hits to be about three 
per shell. 
Competitive Practice. 
It was the universal opinion that, certainly as far as Okehampton was 
concerned, the conditions of the Competitive Practice were too difficult; 
and, had not the qualifying marks been reduced, no first or second, and 
only one third prize would have been obtained. 
Until actually experienced, it is impossible to imagine the difficulty 
of making a row of dummies reasonably visible in the varying lights of 
the moorland. The fact that all the ranges run southward makes it 
harder, as the sun is so early in the day behind the targets. Probably 
the chief cause of the low scoring at Okehampton lies in the fact that, 
from the nature of the ground, the ricochet effect on the target is 
almost nil. Targets have generally to be placed on ground sloping 
towards the battery, and rock, heather and bog combine to check the 
course of every bullet as it reaches the ground. Experiments at Shoe- 
buryness have proved that, of the effect on the target of shell burst 50 
yards short, quite 50 per cent, is due to ricochet. When the distance 
of burst is increased, the proportion of direct hits is correspondingly 
lower. 
To meet these difficulties it has been recommended that all three 
ranges be reduced by 500 yards. Another recommendation is that the 
long range target be of twice the front and half the depth. As it 
stands at present one lucky shell may cause as many casualties as the 
best series fired. 
It is also proposed to invert the order in which the different targets 
are fired at, and to begin at the longest range. This is tactically more 
reasonable, and will save the useless expenditure of ammunition that 
now occurs when, the battery having fired its full number of rounds, 
some of the guns remain loaded. For, any shell thus loaded will serve 
for ranging on the next target. 
The principle of marking for Fire Discipline is a difficult one, and a 
good many officers would like to see it done away with and credits 
awarded for time and effect only. On this subject 1 can not do better 
than quote Colonel Tyler’s remark in the report on last year’s practice. 
He there said “ Fire Discipline may be defined as the element of work, 
while the number of hits must always be to some extent a matter of 
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