Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-09-21

steadier, and begin to feel an instinct when
| shall hit and how my aim is. We now
no longer hear the rip of the cloth, and have
to trust entirely to the keeper and his three
flags.
At this moment st. Ives, who had been
looking about the grass in an observaut
way, suddenly directs my attention to a
large grassy molehill some four feet in di-
ameter, which one of yesterdays Mimic
bullets has pierced with as clean and ex-
net a perforation as a punch makes in u
card, the bullet has pierced some two feet
of solid earth, and has left at going in and
going out, only u little spit of dust to mark
its terrible passage.
Back crawls the keeper, out flies my
widc-awake. In n moment Lacys head
peers over the rampant, and rs my gun
barrel becomes horizontal it disappears
too low, aud the ball spurus the dust three
feet from the left target post.
"ToO low, but good bec-liue," says st
Ives encOura gingly
In beginning long distances, some rifle
instructors teach you to commencehy firing
II little short till you get the true principle
of the line
Now for a specially good onel Powder,
every grain ini gun wiped and ragged out
first, bullet true and well sent home, cap
pressed firmly on nipple. sight looked to
for certainty. am tolcrably sure of the
target somewhere, the only question is
about u white blue or red. will fire
quick, just 81 tritle low, take care to pull
the trigger slow and without IL jerk, and
be careful not to cast up the barrel in pull
ing.
take good middle sight, and aim low
Crock +! am more than sure my aim WAS
true and careful
"IIurrnh! red alag: it is a hull's-eyc.-
The first ever gained at three hundred
yards, and only my second days shooting
at that distance.''
"A tluke," sneers my evil genius OF dis
trust.
"A splendid shot" whispers my evil
genius of self
"Dccidcdly improving" says St. Ives;
'Surcr and more intelligent shooting, more
understanding of the necessary allowan-
ces."
get rondcr of my weapon now because
begin to understand better its trcmcnd-
Gus powers, its roibles, its necessities, and
to appreciate its fidelity to all who compel
ii to be their slave.
"But, now" says ST Ives, "lct us walk
up aud see how the target looks and what
the tendency of to-day's bullets is"
So up we went, passing, thirty yards OH,
Il still smoking wnd. The great white
butterflies left the pink germnndcr flowers
to hover around us like tussy parasites ns
we walked.
Every pretty practice, sir" said the
keeper, looking round from where he is
kneeling before the target, busy with his
patches.
We examined the target as if it had
been Il chart, and we were trying TO dis
cover 81 new northwest passage We cX-
tracted some curious facts from that re-
search. One of my bullets had entered
the same hole as that Of one OF St. IveS's,
and had merely torn it larger. We had
also smilar tie in the lower pole OF the
target, out of which the unanimous pair
had gouged pieces of deal as thick
mans thumb.
We then went 10 the other side of the
target to see what the bullets had done
there. We found the turf cut in groovcd
lines some two feet long; in the loose
carthcn part of the turf the bullets had
;orn and twisted the soil into small super
fetal ratholcS, but in the chalk and solid
clay they had penetrated deeper aud more
lOngitudinally, and to the depth sometimes
nf twelve inches for we prObcd the
wounds with our steel rnmrods, and then
cut down TO the bullets with our knives
The bullets thus extracted were in various
conditions; some were smooth, aud fit To
fire again at once without even 81 CREASED
patch others were hluntcd at the point.
Some were nat-prllcts; others, jammcd
into fints, were bruised into quite square
shape. Considering that nearly all our
stray bullets would, even if they had miss
ci tie head of an enemy's column, certain
Iy have pumped on the rear ranks, what
destruction we alone e., too, 81 mere be-
ginner) might have done that day from Il
rifle pitt had that target been but living in
vnders Of old England