Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-06-27
PRONE MAN TARGET

him to hit with q bullet man lying prone on the ground. the favorite atti- tude of a soldier on the firing line in battle The tendency Of a bull's-eye trained marksman would be to aim too high when shooting at such mark. The "prone-man" target is intended to correct this
 A second target will show the figure of a man taking aim while in a kneel- ing position. The figure is mounted on "a square background of white. and is carefully drawn to measurements so as to present mark as nearly as pos sibIe like that at which the soldier would have to shoot were he fighting for his life in actual conflict. This figure will be used as a target at medium dis tances, from 500 to 600 yards. There will be no credit given for hitting spe- cific parts of the figure corresponding to vital portions of the human anatomy The marksman will be told to aim at the center of the figure. and hit it any where as frequently as possible. If he is skillful enough he can practice at the head or heart, but hits anywhere on the black figure will count equally with what has heretofore been known as a "bull's-eye."
 Still another target represents the full figure of a man standing and fir ing. This is for long distance practice, and will enable marksman to see ex- actly the effect produced Toy his skill in firing. Every shot that hits the figure I-.JT living mark
 If the bullet strikes little high or a little low it will be no great matter, for ball in the head does as much mis- chief as one in the heart or lungs, and if it shatters a mans leg he is out of the combat almost as effectually as though the shot had killed him.
 The largest target of all, and the one therefore that will be used at extreme range, is intended to represent the fig ure of a mounted man. This is more particularly designed for carbine prac- tice by cavalrymen. The troopers will be taught to shoot at the target from horseback as well as dismounted, and, as in the case of the standing man tar get will be instructed to aim at the center of the mass, the idea being that killing the horse of a cavalryman does no less damage to the fighting effective ness of an enemy's force than shooting the rider.
 When, however, the young soldier has acquired sufficient skill as a marks man to hit the black figure with a cred i itable percentage of shots he will be in structed to make special mark of the heads of horse and rider. and the grad ing will then be regulated by the sue cess attained in the effort to hit spe- cihe points of the target.
 These new targets are now in prepa- ration, and the old bulIs-eye targets will be replaced on the United States ranges as rapidly as possible.
 A project for introducing moving tar gets based on the same system as that described above is being considered by the military authorities-the intention being to train the soldiers to shoot at moving targets placed at deceptive dis tances on rough and broken ground, in order that the soldiers may learn to judge for themselves how to sight their rifles when fighting over a rocky and uneven country. The fundamental idea of the whole scheme is to get away from the stereotyped style of training men to shoot by setting up a square target with a small mark in the center