The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-08
TEACHING SOLDIERS TO SHOOT
More Attention to Markmanship
Here Than in Other Coulftries.


ger signals. At one end are ten or
twelve large squares of witt, each bear
ing the silhouette of a standing man.
Half a mile away at the other end are
the grass, and 1t is there where the
cracking of the whips comes from.
In the days of smokeless powder an
army target range, has little Of int est
at first glance. There is no longer the
roar of the heavy Springfield, with the
cloud of white smoke to show who Is
shooting. Instead, there are a few men
Uttered about, the sharp, sauey crack of
a Krag- Jorgensen. and a mysterious disk
rises from the earth in front of the tar
get, hesitates a moment and disappears
again. 1t has marked mans shot.
The Fort Leavenworth rifle range Is
about a mile from the garrison, and all
summer rifle practice goes on from day
light until long after the trumpet corps
in the post has sounded retreat and the
big garrison flag has slowly foated down
to the green parade. ot'Aif
By some of the foreign military men
the American army Is considered eXtraVa-
CANT in its use of ammunition for target
practice. Every enlisted man costs the
government $12 year for powder and
nickel-coated lead shot at targets, which
may seem a small sum in itself; but in an
army of $4,000 it means about $750,000.
In the cavalry branch the soldier gives
three months of the year to learning how
to shoot. In the garrison he is taught
how to aim. Day after day the earbine
Is mounted Oh Il Sack OIL SaIlQ OF gram.
which in turn is strapped to a tripod The
gun remains stationary and the target, a
black disk of paper. is moved according
to the directions of the man who is learn
ing to sight.
When the lower edge of the black CEN
ter is brought into the line of sight, he
saws: Mark" The marker, using PEN
ell. then RECORDS on a white background
through the hole in the center of the
disk its position. The soldier stra ightens
himself and without moving the rifle re-
peats the operation. He sights three
times, and if his aim has not been true
there are three marks. These are joined
by straight lines and the soldier finds he
has not sighted twice at the same point
AS the triangle grows smaller the SOL
der is growing better in sighting.
Then comes the gallery practice. The
REGULAR service rife is used, but the
! charges are lightened. This shooting is
dcne in rooms from sixty to eighty feet
long. After that the man is ready for the
field range. An army range should be
three-Quarters of mile long, SO as to
permit shooting at 1920 yards.
Every detachment is given a month on
the range. and with bag and baggage
the men and officers encamp as if to stay
forever. officers and men get into the
spirit and there is little done except
shooting and nothing else is talked of.
On one of the hottest days recently the
sra pping of the Krags and the flashing
of the signals We're going monotonously
on. but every man who was shooting had
d
nancy to comment. captain and an
old-ume sergeant were talking of some
of the cracks of the Springfield days, md
they talked as freely as If they Wlare
EQUALS in rank. A few feet away stood
a group of officers, one of them an in
structor at West Point, whom the depart
ment had invited to Leavenworth for his
VEGA ton.
81 can hit 1t one out of two free shoot
ing" he said in manner not boastful
Nearly half a mile away was sill
houette of standing man against a
white BACKGROUND. the enemy's outpost.
Inc teacher officer arranged his glasses,
looked along the barrel of the carbine
moment and then came the snap" A
white disk appeared where siIifouette,s
stomach should be and indicated tAat the
man from West Point had made
"bullSeye." 4tseses 80 il i
Did you. ever see. M troops own po-
sitfon?' asked another officer, trim,
nrlght-eyed fellow, made for the array.
he took a soldiers carbine by the bar
rel and with the butt rammed a little
trench, five inches deep and foot long,
INTO the soft turf. When he placed the
stock of the gun in the trench the bar
rel lay nearly fiat on the ground
NOW paste yourself against the grass. :,
and ne fattened himself on the ground
until little of him would have been seen
by one fifty feet away. His. cheek nearly
against the earth, he sighted along The
barrel shot, and the white disk ap-
peared again.
II haro 70 miss EN- in that position, >
he said, arising. THE butt rests against
the earth instead of your shoulder and a
recruit could shoot all day without get
i ting sore shoulder. And an enemy
YOU'D I' q nave to cut. grass to Hit, yo,i
But it's prohibited. for the lawns are not
well ell Kept where fighting is going on
linen came ,new-fangled revolver,
MADE IN Germany that shot as fast
into the air faster than evesighf. This
was private property and practice and
experiment ceased only when all the
egr1nan ammunition had been, shot away
4 rom the front the targets appear to be
mounted on dirt embankment. but in
reallty they are six feet behind If. The
olr{ Is a facing for a heavy stone wall
ana ana me whole is bullet proof. The way
Inc recruits shoot into it should soon
convert 1t into mass of lead and nickel
IN the space between the wall and tha
larger are the markers. always la charge
OF commissioned officers sfron y
wooden frame is covered with canvas ard
on the canvas is posted the paper bearing
the silhouette g iis
~ Inc bullet can be heard passing through
the paper, and after the shot is sionaIed
the target is turned on its axis and a
rfeSh target appears A sticker is naste5
over over the hole made by the bullet. and
the target is ready to be turned again.
after the next shot . @'---
Ihere IS always rivalry among the
!aoops, ana 10 make sure of correct scor-
ing ing the markers and scorekeepers are al
ways CHOSEN from an organization other
than the one that is firing
After all the one rule, if there is a rule
about shooting, that thesmen have dinned
into them is shoot low, The regulations
encourage low shooting by credffine as
hits all ricochet bullets that hit the fig
ure. They may have glanced from a
stone fifty feet in front, but when they
puncture the black man they count as
If they had come straight.
There's nothing so panic-ereating as
to to have the bullets cut the grass in
front OF a man." said one of the officers.
reassuring, if anything, but to have them
spit dust at you makes you feel that the
next one is coming higher When in,
doubt, shoot low, shoot low anyway
Kansas City Star