The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-04 00:00:00

RIFLE TRIALS AT HYTHE.

The Council of the National Rifle Association
having invited all the rifle makers in England to a
competition of small bores at Hythe on the Ist of
May, the invitation was responded to by Mr. Whit-
worth and by a deputation of Birmingham gun.
makers, headed by their chairman, Mr. Goodman.
The United Gunmakers declined to enter their rifles
for the trial under the name of any particular
maker, but sent 10 rifles, representing the best that
could be turned out by the trade, in the hope that
some one of the 10 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, Gen. Hay, 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 ex-
periments:were begun at too late an hour of the day
to admit of their being long continued. The
results, as far as they went on the first day, were
greatly in favour of the Whitworth. On the fol-
lowing day, in spite of the wind, which was blow-
ing a complete gale, the trials, under the judicious
arrangement of General Hay and his well•organized
staff, were proceeded with. The United Gun-
makers 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 had not, however, pro-
vided a rest of their own, but made use of one con-
structed 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 manifest
from the first, and the United Gunmakers, after
trying two of their best rifles, found it hopeless to
continue the contest, and withdrew their rifles from
further competition. The mean deviation of 40
shots of the Whitworth rifles was 2136 inches ; of
40 shots of the gunmakers' rifles 70.80 inches, at
800 yards. It should be stated that the wind con-
tinued to blow down the range with the greatest
violence throughout the trials, and, in fact, about
half of the shots of the United Gunmakers 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 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 judgment when they proposed that the Whit-
worth rifle should be used at the national rifle meet-
ing in July by those who intended to compete at
the longest ranges.