The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-06
THE SHOOTING AT SEA GRIT.
What the Newspapers Say of the
Meet and the savannahfans.

Meet and the Savannahians.
From the New York Unconstitutional
The ancient and honorable traditions of
American craftsmanship do not appear
to be in danger of failing into oblivion so
long as they are in the hands of the am
bilious rifle shots of the National Guard.
The shooting which has been done at Sea
Girt during the week has been of a kind
to excite the liveliest admiration, and that
admiration will not be diminished by the
fact that the honors of the meeting have
gone to the soldiers from Georgia.
In the interstate match of Thursday the
New York team acquitted itself with great
credit. The possible seSSe in this match
is 200 and the record S@tore Thursdays
shooting was l,051. The New York rifle
men beat this record by q points, scoring
l,072. Unfortunately for the glory of this
state, there was team from Georgia, and
its members rolled up the imposing score
of 1,lW This is magnificent shooting, and
not word can be said to detract from the
hearty praise due the Georgians for their
splendid work.
Gen. Wngate, who is an authority on
rife shooting, is of the opinion that there
is an element of luck in shooting at the
army silhouette target He holds that
the prone figure used at short range is
too wide and not high enough so that
shots diverging much laterally often score
high, while those diverging a little YER
tically score low. A good line shot will
thus fail sometimes to count as much as
poor one. AT the long range, in Gen.
Wingates opinion, the silhouette figure
is too high and narrow, so chat the slight
est lateral divergence makes a bad score
while line shots at very different eleva-
tons count equally well But this kind
of luck may be about equally divided, and
we can console ourselves only by saying
that the Georgians have had more prac-
tice than our men at the silhouette tar
gets.
But there has been an element in the
contests In which there has been no luck
and that element is the rifles The Geor-
gianS shoot the regulation Springfield
rife, while the soldiers of the New York
National Guard use an old-faShioned
weapon which ought to have been super
seeded long ago by a modern, high-pow-
cred, and finely sighted piece. That the
necessity of arming our state forces with
an improved rife has touched the minds
of the authorities is proved by the fact
that steps have been taken toward sup
plying the deficiency. Whether the new
rifle to be issued to the National Guard
of New York will put our soldiers on a
level of craftsmanship that will enable
them to defeat such grand shots as the
Gecrgians cannot. of course, be predicted
with certainty. Some of our expert shots
say the new rife is by no means an accu-
rate weapon. But perhaps further tests
of its abilities will reverse this verdict
and enable our rifemen 10 shoot with
more confidence. and therefore with bet
tec prospects of success.
Meanwhile let US hope that steps will
be taken to organize an all-American
military rifle team to go abroad and COM
hoo -1,,fp Ia !, Il.
OF the Atlantic. 1t would be very inter
esting to know how we stand comparison
with the English and German sharp
shooters of to-day.