COMMENDED ESSAY, 1897 . 
361 
The next important item is that of ammunition allowed and employed. Ammunition. 
The latest regulations on the subject should very much simplify 
matters and improve our “combined practice.” By the blending of 
small batches of powder, we have got rid of what was at one time a 
fruitful source of irregular shooting, and may gradually do away with 
all small groups in magazines. 
The cartridges on armament charge, should however be managed so 
that every gun of a group may be able to fire at least ten rounds of the 
same batch, though twenty would be a better minimum. In all cases 
where less than this are required for the year’s practice, and there are 
no small batches remaining, they should be made up locally ; but 
whenever possible, the armament cartridges should be used up, and 
replaced by others of later date, to prevent the accumulation of old 
powder. A little combination between officers demanding ammunition, 
should make it simple, in most cases, to fire ten or twenty rounds per 
gun from one or several groups during the year. 
Instead of having a fixed number of rounds allowed, and commuting 
as necessary, each station can now receive the money value, which can 
be expended as most convenient. The proportion of this allowed to 
companies, is the equivalent of 140 rounds of 64-pr. R.M.L., which in 
some cases gives a number of rounds quite inadequate for proper 
company training. 
Each company should receive a more liberal money allowance to 
cover blank ammunition, elementary, company and competitive practice, 
according to the station it is to fire from and the guns it will have to 
use. The value of a round of every description of ammunition being 
assessed, the C.O. could decide upon his programme of practice ; allowing 
for the rounds required for competitive, he could base his demand upon 
the scheme he wishes to carry out, and expend his balance upon 64-pr. 
for elementary and blank. 
One great drawback to the successful carrying out of practice, is due Reports and 
to the innumerable reports and returns that have to be made out returns - 
afterwards. This evil cannot be made clearer than by quoting words 
used in one of the commended essays, 1895 :—“ we must remember that 
the most careful notes are needed to be taken, moment by moment, if 
full value is to be got out of the ammunition expended.” 
What is the consequence of this taking of notes ? The B.C., who has 
more than enough to think of, often is further worried by having to 
write notes, or seeing that they are properly taken by others ; the G.G.O. 
perhaps has to write down the range he fired at, the reading of the dial, 
the deflection, etc., when he should be thinking of his next prediction ; 
and the gun captain, instead of superintending the sponging out of his 
gun, is marking the recoil with a piece of chalk ! 
All these details, though they do not sound formidable, are really 
most irritating and lead to errors. Our practice should be for the pur¬ 
pose of training men to service conditions, and should not take the 
form of a series of experiments ; although at station practice when guns 
may have to be fired for the special purpose of testing mountings, notes 
sometimes become necessary. 
We have made such a rapid transition from the old days, with practi- Range and 
cally no correction but what the No. 1 thought right, to our present conections. 
system that we have almost run the subject of ranging to death. In 
the range given to the guns, we may have corrections for powder, travel 
of target, time of firing and flight, wind, tide, displacement, level of 
