The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-05 00:00:00

RIFLE TRIALS AT HYTHE.

I' • • the i4At I;.ti • "ue ounci o lona e Association having
invited all the rifle maker's in England t 6 a competition
of small boreS at Hythe, on the ISt of May, the invita-
tion was responded to by Mr. Whitworth and by a depu-
tat ion _of Birmingham gunmakers, headed by their chair-
man, Mr. Goodman. The United Gunmakers declined
to enter their titles for the. trial under the name of any
particular maker, bat sent ten rifles, representing the
best that coiild be turned out by the trade, in the hope
that some one of the ten might be found superior to the
Whitworth. The London makers appear to have declined
the contest altogether. It is a significant fact that all
the rifles sent to contend with those of Mr. Whitworth
had the bore and turn which he has adopted, so that
at the very outset it was tacitly admitted that in its bore -
and turn the Whitworth system is right. The council
of the association were represented at Hythe by Lord
Spencer, Lord Elcho, Lord Vernon, General llay, Mr.
T. Fairbairn, and the secretary, Mr. St. John Mildmay.
The programme of the trials was drawn up on Tuesday,
and in spite of the high winds which prevailed,
some score shots were fired from the rival rifles, each
firing alternately at. the same target at a range of
800 yards. The experiments were begun at. too late
an hour of the day to admit of their being long con-
tinued. The results, as far as they went on the first
day, were greatly in favour of the Whitworth. On
the following day, in spite of the wind, which was
blowing a complete gale, the trials, under the judicious
arrangement of General Hay and his well-oganised
staff, were proceeded with. The United Gunmakers
insisted that all the shooting should be from the machine
rest., as that was the most satisfactory mode of testing
the guns, without depending on the marksman's skill.
They bad not,' however, provided a rest of their own,
but made use of one constructed by Mr. Whitworth for
the Hythe School of Musketry. Mr. Whitworth brought
with him a similar rest, and both were placed side by
side, in the first instance, at 800 yards from the target.
The superiority of the Whitworth rifle was mani-
fest from the first, and the United Gunmakers,
after trying two of their best rifles, found it hope-
less to continue the contest, and withdrew their rifles
from further competition. The mean deviation of 40
shots of the Whitworth rifles was 21.36 inches ; of 40
shots of the gunmakere rifles 70.80 inches, at 800
yards. It should be stated that the wind continued to
blow down the range with the 'greatest violence through-
out the trials, and, in fact, about. half of the 40 shots
of the United Guumakers failed to hit the target,
which was 18 feet square. All the Whitworth shots
hit, as the' Whitworth projectile, owing doubtless to
its greater velocity and lower trajectory, was much
less affected by the wind. With the view of rendering
the comparison more complete, the best of the rifles of
the United Gunmakers 39 inches long, was fired against
a Whitworth 33 inches long, at a range of 1,100 yards,
and the result, as was in fact anticipated, more fully
confirmed the superiority of the Whitworth rifle. It
can hardly be said, considering the results which have
been obtained from these trials, that the council of the
National Rifle Association committed an error in judg-
ment when they proposed that the Whitworth rifle
should be used at the national rifle meeting in July by
those who intended to compete at the longest ranges.