131 
FIELD ARTILLERY FIRE. 
PREFACE. 
The following pages have no pretension to be a complete Fire Manual, but must 
be looked upon rather as a gloss upon the text of the Field Artillery Drill-Book, 
amplifying where some further explanation appears necessary and bringing the 
information contained therein up to date. 
In none of the English text-books is there any extended information on the 
subject of Observation and Distribution of Fire ; an omission which it has been 
sought, in these papers, to supply. 
The Chapter on the Examination of Range Reports is quite new, and the 
method explained has already proved of great use at the Practice Camps of 1891. 
It is hoped that this little work will prove of use to Officers in lecturing to their 
N.-C.O.’s and men. 
Chapter I. 
FIRE DISCIPLINE. 
In the days of smooth-bore weapons effective ranges were very short, 
and shooting was very inaccurate; with the musket of 1842 the per¬ 
centage of hits on a target 6 feet high by 20 feet broad was— 
at 100 yards ... 74*5 
„ 200 „ ... 42-5 
„ 300 „ ... 16 
„ 400 „ ... 4-5 
Artillery was therefore used at what are, to us, very short ranges, 
from 400 to 600 yards, and even closer; guns were only sighted to 
1000 or 1200 yards, and beyond 600 yards the effect of fire became 
very uncertain : at the range of 1000 paces only one-third of the shot 
hit the target then in use, which was 6 feet high and 50 paces broad. 
The method of procedure was for the Battery Commanders, using their 
batteries as tactical units, to bring their commands in as close as 
possible to the enemy and open fire, having first ordered a rough 
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