The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]) 1901-1902, 1901-08-11
LEARN1rlG G 10 KILL MEN.
Our Soldiers Study craftsmanship
Three Months Each Year.
Figures From 200 Yards to One Mile
Away Peppered by Nickel-Coated
BulIets-PractIce Which Brought
Results in tthe War With Spain.

O 1 flnc wal SPUN
n All the dny-thc whips crack over til,
yellow sunburEt strip of plain. On either
c side long streamers of the anarchists
: color float from sturIpy STATS, at once
serving as wind gauges and as danger
: signals. At one end are ten or twelve
: large squares of white, each bearing the
silhouette of standing man. Half q
r mile away at the other end are men IL
blue, lying, standing or sitting in tn,
g | grass. and it is there where the cracking
r | of the whips comes from.
In the days of smokeless powder an
army target range has little of interest 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 { few men Uttered
about, the sharp, saucy crack of Krag-
Jorgensen, and mysterious disk rises
from the earth in front of the target,
hesitates a moment, and disappears again.
1t has marked mans shot.
The Fort Leavenworth rifle range is
about mile from the garrison and all
summer troops are encamped there. The
shooting goes on from daylight till long
after the trumpet corps in the post has
sounded the beautiful Retreat and the
big garrison flag has slowly foated down
to the green parade. By some of the for
eign military men the American Army is
considered extravaganza in its use of am
munition for target, practice. Every en-
listed man costs the Government about 81
year for powder and nickel-coated lead
shot at targets, which may seem a small
sum in itself, but in an army of $1,000 it
| means about three-quarters of a million
| dollars.
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 carbine
is mounted on a sack of sand or grain
which in turn is strapped to a tripod
| The gun remains stationary and the tar
| get, black disk of paper, is moved ac-
| cording to the directions of the man who
| is learning to sight When the lower edge
of the black centre is brought into the
| line of sight, he says: Mark" The
| marker, using a pencil, then records on
| white background through the hole in
the centre of the disk it's position The
soldier straightens himself and without
moving the rifle repeats 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 SOL
der finds he has not sighted twice at
the same point AS the triangle grows
smaller the soldier is growing better in
sighting. Then comes the gallery prac- |
tice. The regular service rifle is used |
but the charges are lightened This shoot |
ing Is done in rooms from sixty to eighty |
feet long After that the man is ready /
for the field range. An army range should I
be three-quarters of a mile long, so as
to permit shooting at LOO yards. Each
detachment is given month on the range /
and with bag and baggage the men and
officers encamp 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 of last week the swapping
of the Krags and the flashing of the sig
nails was going monotonously on, but ev-
cry man who was shooting had group
near him and there was no hesitancy to
comment A captain and an old-time ser
geant were talking of some of the cracks
of the Springfield days and they talked
as freely as if they were equals in rank
A few feet away stood a group of off,
GERS, one of them an instructor at West
Point, whom the department had invited
to Leavenworth for his vacation.
Il can hit it one out of two. free shoot
ing, he said in manner not boastful.
Nearly half mile away was a sill
Vi al against q white
background-the enemys outpost. The
teacher-officer arranged his glasses, look
ed along the barrel of the carbine a mo-
ment, and then came the snap" A white {
disk appeared where a slhouette's stom-
ach should be and indicated that the mar
from West Point had made n bull s-eye"
Did you ever see NJ troops own posi- d
uon? asked another officer, a trim {
bright-eyed fellow, made for the army /
He took soldiers carbine by the barrel v
and with the butt rammed a little trench, y
five inches deep and foot long, into the o
thrf. When he placed the stock of the s
gun in the trench the barrel lay nearly
Hat on the ground n
Now paste yourself against the grass" Ii
and he fiattened himself on the ground s
until little of him would have been seen II
by one fifty feet away. His check nearly b
against the earth, he sighted along the it
BARREL he shot and the white disk ap- C
1eared again.
It's hard to miss EN- in that position" il
he said arising. The butt rests against II
he earth instead of your shoulder and a
ecruit could shoot all day without getting W
sore shoulder. And enemy would II
AVE to cut grass to hit you. But it's
for the lawns are not well fl
.ept where fighting is going on d.
Then came new-fangled revolver. eN
made in Germany" that shot as fast as hi
ne could count and spit empty shells m
lto the air faster than eyesight This pi
as private property and practice and | W
experiments ceased only when all the b
erman ammunition had been shot away. &c
And these We're men, fully grown. of sV
Ugh intelligence and many of mature er
ears. They were on the target range re
nd that tells the story. Their one Is
bought was to learn all about shooting at
nd to teach il to the men under them. sil
very recruits work was watched closely
nd after a man promised to become a ha
he lacked no attention An old lie
non COM who had won his medals in IA
lie days of competitive shoots in the W.
my, before the fight with Spain, would WI
an over the new man all day, telling
m how to catch the target as the swing OF
g gun slowly passed it; how to keen the 70
lgser Just at the hair point so that an WI
her thought would make il snaD az the II
'oper moment; how to hold the gun on
;alnst his shoulder and how, with pa ne
'nce, he would some day wear the cross ca
ii bar of a sharpshooter
After the preliminary shooting on the INC
nge, the score of each man is careful
kept. He begins to shoot at 200 wards W.
Id then advances to 300 500. and 900 If i.''
makes 6S per cent out of a possible INC
he is advanced to 500 yards and final 'io
TO 600 If he faiS he remains at the iiu
l-yard line. Evidently the West is moi "e