422 
FOREST AND STREAM 
SEPTEMBER, 1917 
THE CIVILIAN RIFLEMAN 
PART I. 
By MAJOR S. J. FORT 
WIND-GAUGE AND ELEVATION CORRECTIONS TABLES 
Springfield, 
1905 Sight 
25 yds. 
Krag, 
1901 Sight 
25 yds. 
One 
elevation 
One 
elevation 
Distance 
point 
equals on 
point 
equals on 
equals 
target 
equals 
target 
200 yds. 
8 in. 
1.62 in. 
12 in. 
3 
300 yds. 
12 “ 
2.77 “ 
18 “ 
6 “ 
500 yds. 
20 “ 
6.20 “ 
30 “ 
18 “ 
600 yds. 
24 “ 
8.54 “ 
36 “ 
24 “ 
800 yds. 
32 “ 
1 5-62 “ 
48 “ 
3 d “ 
1,000 yds. 
40 “ 
25.00 “ 
60 “ 
48 “ 
A MERICA seems to be approaching a 
condition of affairs which will make 
the rifle something more than an ab¬ 
stract proposition to every male citizen of 
military age as well as those approaching 
that age, and those who are beyond it and 
still retain their physical abilities. 
All men serving in the ranks will of 
course receive adequate training in the use 
of their rifles, but while this will account 
for a large number, a much larger number 
will remain in reserve and others will be 
coming on in readiness for service as their 
age reaches the required number of years. 
The Government will no doubt make pro r 
vision for ranges, rifles, ammunition and 
instructors to take care of this additional 
army, but in the meantime every man 
should learn the rudiments of rifle practice, 
at least, such as may be taught by word 
of mouth and in the same manner learn 
something about range practice, so that he 
may be less of a stranger when reporting 
for instruction. 
The Army appropriation bills before the 
war provide millions of dollars for Civilian 
rifle practice to be expended under the di¬ 
rection of the Secretary of War and a Di¬ 
rector of Civilian rifle practice, and after 
the war more attention will be given to 
encouraging rifle practice than ever before, 
as our own protection demands that we 
again become a nation of rifle men. It is to 
be sure the King of sports but more than 
that it is a patriotic duty; and every man 
regardless of age or physical fitness should 
put his shoulder to the wheel and make our 
country the nation of riflemen we were in 
earlier days. 
We must all realize and endeavor to ap¬ 
preciate the stupendous task confronting 
the War Deparament in organizing, arming, 
and equipping and training the first great 
Army of approximately 600,000 men, and 
subsequent preparations for another army 
of equal size. 
It must be obvious, if the War Depart¬ 
ment is now forced to adopt a new rifle to 
supply a deficiency of Springfields, that 
civilians other than solders can not be sup¬ 
plied with military rifles until the fighting 
forces are fully armed, all of which means 
delay unless substitutes are utilized. 
Furthermore, equipping new ranges for 
the use of soldiers, will make a tremendous 
drain upon the visible supply of range ma¬ 
terial, for which reason civilian rifle clubs 
must be prepared to handle the saw, and 
hammer and “do their bit” in providing 
local ranges. Concerted effort, and con¬ 
centrated energy at the present time will 
greatly aid the War Department in this 
matter as well as demonstrate the fact that 
American ingenuity is fully capable of cop¬ 
ing with any emergency. This series of 
articles is intended to present in a concise 
manner the most important principles of 
the art of rifle shooting with a summary 
of range practice calculated to produce 
quick results in developing reasonable skill. 
Boiled down to a few words, .accurate 
shooting with the military rifle depends 
upon four fundamental principles; how to 
sight, how to aim, how to hold and how 
to squeeze the trigger of the weapon. 
Further development of skill depends en¬ 
tirely upon experience gained from regular 
and intelligent practice. 
A LL rifles are equipped with a front- 
sight and a rear-sight, the object of 
these parts being to steer the flight 
of the bullet so it will strike the point of 
aim. If a rifle is laid upon a stationary 
rest and carefully aligned with a distant 
object and discharged, it would seem that 
the projectile would inevitably strike that 
object. It is a law of physics that a mis¬ 
sile moving through the air, begins to fall 
toward the earth the instant it leaves the 
projecting force, thus making its path a 
curve instead of a straight line. 
This curve may be flattened by increas¬ 
ing the velocity of the projectile but still 
remains a curve and to strike a distant ob¬ 
ject, the path of the bullet must be raised 
as much as it would fall in passing over 
the distance between the projecting force 
and the object to be hit. This is accom- 
pished by the aid of the sights. 
For military rifle service it is necessary 
to have a strong, fixed front sight, and the 
height of this sight as attached to the 
barrel, is carefully calculated with refer¬ 
ence to the rear-sight, by which elevation 
is obtained, and the velocity of the ammu¬ 
nition used. 
The rear-sight of the military rifle con¬ 
sists of three parts, a hinged-leaf with an 
adjustable slide, a movable base and a 
fixed base. The leaf of the Model 1901 
rear-sight used on the Krag rifle, is grad¬ 
uated from 100 to 2,000 yards, marks upon 
each side indicating definite distances, and 
after passing 1,000 yards, other marks show 
rises of 25, 5°> 75 yards between distances. 
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