May, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
297 
MAN AND BOY RIFLE CLUBS 
By CAPTAIN ROY S. TINNEY 
Y first rifle club was organized one 
July afternoon while we were sitting 
about the well curb. It consisted of a 
gray haired man and a very small boy who 
had acquired a long, slender .22 rifle and 
desired to learn how to point that weapon 
in a manner calculated to knock a squirrel 
out of a tall tree. Our range site was 
Uncle’s back pasture lot and for equipment 
we procured a large box upon which we 
tacked our home-made targets. Just to 
one side of this tactical butt, and placed so 
as not to cast a shadow on the target, we 
erected a wall of earth about three feet 
thick supported by some old boards, a 
parapet to protect the boy from stray bul¬ 
lets while the man “sighted in” the new 
rifle from an improvised rest. Later on 
they traded places and the man coached his 
pupil by calling out the results of each shot 
and his directions for firing the next one. 
Before long the boy “caught on” and soon 
the range was increased to a point where a 
form of disk signals had to be devised. 
Thus W'as I introduced into the great 
brotherhood of the grooved tube and to 
this day I have yet to find a more useful 
or satisfactory rifle range. That was twen¬ 
ty-five years ago and the club is still in 
existence, holding an unbroken record for 
100% attendance at all official shoots, the 
only kind we ever held; a record, I believe, 
that cannot be duplicated by any similar 
organization. 
You old timers who want to get back 
in the game would do well to organize one 
of these Man and Boy Rifle Clubs. When 
your friends are “too busy” or a range 
isn’t available, don’t look longingly at the 
old shootin’ iron and leave it with a sigh 
of regret. Look up a likely kid and tell 
him your troubles. Boys are the most 
human of all animals and the way they 
respond to a suggestion of this sort will 
gladden your heart. He will prove to be a 
lot of help and a lot of company. Don’t 
get sore if he trims you with your own 
gun; boys have a way of doing that as 
their nerves are steady and their eyes are 
good, also fhey soak up shooting dope like 
a sponge does water. Never tell a boy 
anything about guns that you do not t want 
him to know; he is possessed of a most at¬ 
tentive mind and an excellent memory. 
Try this out some Saturday afternoon in 
the near future; it is an experiment well 
worth while, and the next week you will 
not forget to go again—the boy will at¬ 
tend to that. Then send me your scores 
and tell me just how you made out; don’t 
hesitate to go into details, such letters are 
always interesting. It would be a godsend 
to this country and the next generation if 
we could organize and conduct a League 
of Man and Boy Rifle Clubs through this 
department. Just think of the possibilities 
it would open up for experiments and ex¬ 
periences, re-entry matches where only the 
LL questions relating to rifles 
and riflemen will be answered in 
these columns by Captain Roy S. 
Tinney, Dr. J. B. Bevis, and other 
well known authorities oil the rifle. 
Readers are invited to send in prob¬ 
lems and to make this the open forma 
of the shooting game. [Editors.] 
best scores count and records made by the 
youngsters, classified according to their 
ages. Yes, it would be worth trying. That 
is how I learned and this season I will 
continue to pass the good work along—to 
another boy. “And,” I tell him, “when 
you grow up it is your duty to teach 
other boys how to shoot.” Such after¬ 
noons will do both you and the boy a lot 
of good and you will gain a friend that 
will stick to you through life; the sort of 
a friendship that no amount of money, 
prestige or influence can command. 
MORE ABOUT THE DOUBLE 
APERTURE SIGHT 
HERE may be a man in this country 
who knows more - about rifle sights 
than Thomas Martin, but I never 
heard of him. For over thirty years, forty 
would probably come nearer the correct 
figure, Martin has made sights for the bug- 
giest of rifle bugs, even the immortal ex¬ 
perimenter and ballistician, Dr. Mann, had 
nothing but praise for the products of this 
master craftsman, so in further reply to 
the inquiries of Master John Kennedy and 
B. L. V. of Albany, I now give the opinion 
of the Old Master on the subject of double 
aperture sights: 
“Why not cut loose from the ‘blade’ 
form of front sight altogether and in place 
of it use an aperture front sight, with 
ring, stem and movable base all made in 
one and to fit in the base proper, just as 
the movable --base now does ? 
“With an aperture ring of about 5/16 
inch outside diameter, optional apertures 
of from .075 to .100 inch, the ring having a 
length of some 5/16 inch and its outside 
diameter well tapered towards the muzzle, 
with the aperture diaphragm made integral 
with the ring and midway of its length, 
then we would have a front sight giving 
good illumination, freedom from focusing 
and strength galore. Furthermore, it can¬ 
not be said of such a sight that its working 
edges would be damaged, for they are all 
within the ring and well protected. 
“I presume someone would rise right up 
on his hind legs and state that the mud 
of the trenches will fill the aperture. Well, 
-what if it does? How much work is it to 
clean it out, and are not the advantages 
greater than the disadvantages? With the 
aperture front sight as above mentioned 
there will be no question of proper eleva¬ 
tion or centering; one will simply ‘look 
through’ the front and rear apertures, fo¬ 
cus sharply on the object to be hit and 
the aiming eye will automatically and 
efficiently attend to the centering.” 
B. W. K., Denver, Colorado: 
To settle our arguments, please explain 
to us (a) if the striking velocity and 
hence striking energy of a bullet in the 
high altitudes is equal or greater than the 
striking velocity and energy of the same 
bullet at sea level. (b) If the striking 
velocity is greater, would not any rifle 
shoot higher in the high altitudes than at 
sea level? (c) If so, how much higher? 
(d) Is this not a big factor of misses in 
high altitudes? (a) If one will study a 
ballistic table of cartridges, he will observe 
that the velocity and energy of any bullet 
decreased very rapidly in the ascending 
curve of its trajectory. The Springfield, 
for illustration, loses 235 f. s. in velocity 
and 441 ft. lbs, in energy in passing over 
the first 100 yards of its flight; and over 
the same distance the 50-110 W. H. V. 
loses 500 f. s. in velocity and 1323 ft. lbs. 
in energy. 
This loss in both velocity and energy is 
due solely to the resistance of the air upon 
the bullet, which at a casual glance would 
seem insignificant, but the fact that it re¬ 
quires nearly one-fourth of a ton to push 
the tiny 150 grain Springfield bullet 100 
yards in ,it6 seconds, and nearly Y of a 
ton to push 300 gr. bullet of the 50-na 
the same distayce in .152 seconds, indicates 
vividly the tremendous toll taken by the air 
to permit the bullet to pass through the 
first 100 yards of flight. It is patent that 
the less dense (the lighter) the air the less 
resistance will be offered by it, and the less 
the toll taken. Pursuing this line of rea¬ 
son, a vacuum should not offer any re¬ 
sistance to the bullet, and the striking ve¬ 
locity should equal the muzzle velocity. 
And this reasoning is correct, for those 
conditions would exist in a vacuum. The 
striking velocity, hence the striking energy, 
of any bullet in the high altitudes is greater 
than the striking velocity at sea level for 
the same range (b, c). Yes, it would shoot 
higher. Using Denver, altitude 5280 ft., 
and the Springfield for illustration, the toll 
taken by the rarer air of Denver to permit 
the buffet to travel 625 yards, will permit 
the buffet to pass through only 500 yards 
at sea level. 
This does not mean that with sights set 
at 500 yards, the rifle will shoot 625 yards 
at Denver. T.he facts of the case are that 
it will shoot only 530 yards with the sights 
set at 500 yards, which means an over¬ 
shoot of about 8 inches. This subject is 
fully treated in Bevis & Donovan’s Ex¬ 
terior Ballistics for Hunters and Riflemen* 
pages 93, 94, and 132. 
(d) An overshot of 8 inches at SOO 1 
yards would probably score a clean miss. 
At the shorter ranges the overshot would 
not be as great; at the longer distances 
greater. J. B. Bevis, Ph. D. 
