The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-29
SOLDIERS AT THE RANGE.
SAVANNAH MILITARY MEN SEEK
ING To QUALIFY AS SHARP
SHOOTERS.

The AvondaIe Range Visited Daily
by Detachments From One or More
of the Local Commands The
Prizes offered to Winning Teams
at the State Shoot, to BE Held in
September, Add Incentive to the
Practtce-Saturdaya Favorite Day
for Target Shooting and Fifty or
sixty Men Were at the Butts.
Baths to BE Built in Time for Sep
TENDER Contests.
The Avondale Rifle Range Is visited
every afternoon by attachments from one
or more of the military companies of the
city, the members of which exhaust many
rounds of ammunition IN the effort to
find and keep within the elusive and dis
appointing bufls-eye.
1t is a poor day when they are not
twenty-five or thirty men on the range
and on most afternoons this attendance is
doubled. The explanation of the unusual
activity Is founded in the desire OF the
citizen soldiers TO qualify as sharpshoot-
ers or marksmen, with the added incen-
tive of the prizes offered by the Savan-
nah Military Rifle Range Association, to
the successful regimental and company
teams at the state shoot that will be
held here in September.
1t is believed that every company IN the
First Regiment in Savannah and the
Georgia Hussars will enter a team in the
company match, for the winner of which
the De Soto Cup is offered a trophy
Each has a daV Of VUael< r c.
signed to it for practice on the range, the
number of targets being sufficiently large
to permit of two or three companies en-
gaging in practice at one and the same
time.
Saturday afternoon is a favorite time
for practice, many of the soldier boys
finding it possible to be absent on this day
from their businesses, who are kept away
from the ranges at all other times. On
yesterday there were fifty or sixty men at
the butts and the noise of rifle shooting
became, when the practice was at its hot
test, an incessant rattle. Some of the old
time shots of the Georgia team al Sea
Grit among them H. f. Wilson, C. S.
Richmond, Fred Myers, Tom Philpot and
others. were out encouraging and instruct
ing the novices and taking an occas ional
shot at the targets on their own account
Some good scores were made, but other
marksmen, after firing with desperate de-
termination, fifteen or twenty rounds. only
succeeded in inducing the individual in
the pit to do some frantic signalling with
the red flag. IF you don't succeed
in getting inside the target" remarked
one of the bystanders to a would-be sharp
shooter, who had been thus unsuccessful
you will make the people on the street
cars think we are conducting a bull-fgh,
Why don't you slip up behind the target
and throw a rock a it?'
The aresian well that has recently been
dug at the range is a source of much con-
venience to those who are making the
effort to qualify. 1t is promised that by
the time the state shoot is under way
baths sufficient in number for the partic-
lpants Will be erected, the well furnish
ing the water necessary to make this i'm.
provement. 1t is a much-needed one, as
after man has shot at 200 yards stand
ing, at 300 seated, al 500 lying down, and
then concluded his afternoons exercise
by running the skirmish he feels that a
bath is the one thing in the world that
he needs, and that he really wants above
everything else.
The baths would be a convenience and
a source of comfort if they were in po-
| sition and operation at present, so that
| the men who are at the range daily
| might have the use of them. If they are
to be erected before September, it would
| seem that no good would be accomplish
ed by deferring their construction until
! just before the time for the state shoot
| The attendance at the range speaks
well for the military spirit of the state
| troops with headquarters in Savannah,
| the men making the trip to the range and
in many cases paying for the ammuni-
! ton that they expend in the effort to
! qualify without assistance from their COM
pany funds. That the troops here have
| entirely recovered from the disorganizing
| after-effects of the Spanish war one trip
| to the range on any afternoon of the
week will satisfy even the most preju-
| diced observer.