The herald., 1898-06-26


accuracy for long flight, no matter how
great it may be at starting. And now comes
a great difficulty with very heavy guns All
the rifle shooting by which the records are
| made is done at distances measured to an
inch and with sights tested for those dis
ltances- not by one shot, but by DOZENS A
sight found by trial for 500 yards, there is
no rule by which it can be found for 600.
Trials alone will give it. BY the mere in
crease of fall alone it could be calculated,
but the increasing resistance of the air, act
ing differently on all balls according to their
shape of head. their length and their weight
as compared with their diameter, makes
| the problem insoluble except by large
number of shots at each measured distance.
Such adjustment of sights on our large
guns would bankrupt us even if the guns
would stand the number of rounds neces-
sary. Even then they would be no better
| than rifles in proportion to their range.
And the more practice anyone has had
shooting at game at unknown distances
| beyond 200 yards or so the less he wants of
| it and the more creeping he will do to short
en- the distance.
The apparent height of a mark is affected
by the refraction of light, and this is often
so great that If a rifle is sighted for
three fott bulrs-eye in shade at a thousand
yards and the sun comes out and lights up
the mark, you are liable to miss the whole
if allowance is not made for it. The same
result follows In a reverse manner if the
rifieman is in the shade and the mark in
the sun when the sights are set under the
other conditions. At four miles this might
be very material cause of error.
If a rifle ball be dropped from a tower
in a strong wind and one be fired on level
at the same time, the one fired on a level
will be DETECTED by wind that will not
perceptibly affect the ball dropped across it.
Though the size of the two, is the same, and
the time. ofs their crossing the wind the
same, there is difference in the result that
so far has puzzled riflemen. This effect
is greatest with the ball that is the lightest
for its diameter A round ball from COM
mon rifle will be carried off from five to ten
feet in crossing a wind of fifteen miles an
hour for thousand feet, or about one Sec
ond at the highest Even the long range
ball of nearly four times the weight of the
round ball of the same caliber is so affected
by wind that lines Of flags are necessary
for all shooting at three foot bulrs-eye at
thousand yards. And it cannot be hit II
the wind by shifting the sights to one side
with wind gauge. To hit game at any
considerable distance in cross wind with
out holding the sights clear off on one side
of the animal is impossible. All this means
a guess at distance, on the dorp of the ball,
on the amount of front sight you are taking
ito allow for it if you are using open sights,
on the amount necessary to allow for wind
and on the amount you are actually TAX
ing-five guesses, where one is bad enough.
Upon these come another which rarely
bothers the rifieman on game, but would
If he did very much long range shooting,
and which at four miles must be very con-
siderable. When one shoots rifle at nearly
a level on smooth water one cansee the ball
skip over the water in curve either to the
right or the left, according to the turn of
the rifiing. The more often it touches the
water the greater the curve SO made. 1t is
plainly caused by the under side of the
rotating ball forcing it off the line of flight
whenever it touches. After ball begins
to fall the air becomes more dense beneath
it than above and this density increases
with the increase of fall. The rotation acts
upon this density, the, same. as upon water
and soon after beginning to fall the ball
begins to swing to one side at a rate con-
stantly increasing with the fall. This is
called drift. For fine work with rifle al
lowance must be made for it inside of a
thousand yards. At five thousand yards or
about three miles it must be considerable.
Its amount can be determined and allowed
for quite accurately, but can be done only
by considerable experiment, which is prob
ably not done with big guns.
The point at which a ball will lose it's
velocity of rotation so far as to make i.
wabblc is also very important and can be
determined only by series of trial shots
at measured distances. AS soon as the point
of the ball begins to wind all accuracy is
gone and it is not long before it will strike
sideways or butt foremost. To hold a rifle
ball point on at thousand yards requires
a very long-bodied ball with the center of
gravity well forward or not too far back of
the center Even then the twist must be
very rapid or it will strike sideways at five
hundred yards, making hole like a key
hole.
Moving Targets
These difficulties are bad enough when
both gun and target are at rest, the dis
tance measured and the amount of wind
known by flags or tar pots. Allowance
must be made for them all and it takes con-
siderable practice' to do 1t. It, is the judg-
ment and practice used in doing this that
makes long range expert with rifle in
stead OF mere steadiness of hand or KEEN
ness of sight. The same principles apply to
any long range work and they cannot be
avoided by any new kind of powder or by
flying the American flag over gun. Such
principles bow to no genius or power.
HOW much more are these troubles in
creased when the gun or target is in mo-
ton, or both Of them? Ponder on these for
awhile and you will not wonder that it costs
SO much to bag a Matanzas mule. The
practice necessary to overcome them even
partially would ruin the treasury and crys-
talize every big gun in the service.
First we have the rise and fail of the shin
from the trough to the crest Of a wave
which may sometimes be considerable. But
to this is added the roll of the ship, which
keeps the tip of a mast carving elIiptical
cones out of space all the time. The conse-
quence of this Is that If the gun is fired
when the sights are ON the mark by the time
the ball leaves the muzzle they are off of
it. From the moment one decides to fire
until the ball is out is a much larger frac-
ton of second than one imag.nes With
many people the fifth of a second is lost
in nerve transmission from the brain to the
finger. 1t is not unlikely that three
quarters Of second elapse from the time
the gunner decides TO fire until the ball
is free from the muzzle. Suppose during
this iRrre nhe Il1uzzie4 moves ono incb x,,,t,