Were You 
at 
Perry ? 
By 
C. B. LISTER 
A LONG, low, pine board shack 
nestling, as if out of the raw, 
half rain half mist, secluded 
under the grove of low branched apple 
trees. Narrow doors closed tight to 
the moisture laden wind. Inside on the 
rutty hard packed earth five men in as 
many board walled stalls, behind them 
in the run-way three, four, five score 
be-sweatered or raincoated figures. 
Close to the center stall two thirds of 
the spectators gathered in a hushed 
knot peering over the shoulder 
of the Marine scorer, staring 
fixed - eyed past the officer 
hunched over his spotting scope, 
casting covert glances, which 
must not disturb, at the medium 
statured, all unconscious, self- 
graven figure of the rifleman, 
the American Morris Fisher, 
who by dint of the most re¬ 
markable, the most consistent 
shooting the world has ever 
seen was establishing a new record for 
the Individual Free Rifle Champion¬ 
ship of the World. In the other stalls, 
with smaller galleries, the other Amer¬ 
icans, Stokes, Nuesslein, Boles, and 
Osburn, firing slowly or rapidly as 
conditions change. Pacing the runway 
in the conventional long, loose shooting 
coat of the Continental, the French¬ 
man, Regaud, official representative of 
the International Shooting Union. 
Pausing often behind Fisher, watching 
the ever lengthening row of 10’s, 9’s, 
10’s on the score pad the veteran of 
Europe paid compliment to the Amer¬ 
ican in the latter’s own language— 
“The man has gone crazy.” Fourteen 
points beyond the world’s record which 
had stood for ten yea's — fourteen 
points beyond a record established 
under ideal conditions with the light¬ 
ning fast Martini action by Staheli of 
Switzerland in 1912—Fisher,the Amer¬ 
ican, fought his way with an American 
rifle, American ammunition and Amer¬ 
ican grit. For on the shot fifth from 
the last of the long 120 shot grind 
the Marine’s trigger finger “froze.” 
The strain, physical and mental for the 
moment paralyzed the finger which had 
released one hundred and fifteen his¬ 
tory making shots. On those last five 
lllll 
The most remarkable shooting the world 
has ever witnessed was the daily bread of 
the riflemen assembled for the National 
Rifle Association Events at Camp Perry. 
mill 
shots the record hung by a slender 
thread, as slender a strand as when 
once before an American, Stokes, in a 
strange country, had taken twenty 
minutes to fire the shot brought to him 
and to this country the Championship. 
A moments rest. A test of the trigger 
to show that it was the human element 
and not the mechanical which had be¬ 
come too tired to function and Fisher, 
too, came through. Came through on 
his grit to the Title and a new record. 
Meanwhile the others, distanced by the 
terrific pace set by the Champion, 
never-the-less drove themselves beyond 
acknowledged possibilities and the 
Team carried to a new high place the 
World’s Team record and established 
beyond question the right of America 
to claim the Title and to retain the 
Argentine Trophy. Ninety-eight points 
beyond the previous team record, a 
record established by Switzerland in 
the banner year 1912, stands the new 
score established by the “men who 
went crazy.” 
Much heralded as the National and 
International Matches had been this 
year the interest taken, the number of 
riflemen on hand, and the work accom¬ 
plished, exceeded the expectations of 
those most closely in touch with the 
situation. The range was run 
to capacity at all times. The 
limited personnel available for 
handling the targets gave the 
firing line, during practice days, 
the appearance of mess hall 
lines of days gone by as the 
riflemen fell into line one be¬ 
hind another awaiting their 
turn to move up to the firing 
points. Eleven hundred and 
eighteen men faced the targets 
in the Presidents Match. Twelve hun¬ 
dred fired the first stage of the Na¬ 
tional Individual. Ninety-two teams, 
rifle and pistol, and three hundred un¬ 
attached civilians kept the firing points 
filled from 7:30 A.M. till 5:30 P.M. 
For the first time in five years a period 
of raw rainy weather turned the camp 
into a gum-booted, rain-coated, abode 
of good natured grumblers. But 
through it all they shot. They had 
come to Perry after a year’s prepara¬ 
tion. They had come to advertise their 
States to the shooting world, they had 
come to learn more about the shooting 
game and, like the police, they had 
come to learn how better to protect 
lives and property. All of which 
things are matters of importance to 
the American who carries a gun nr 
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