The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-03-19
SHORT RIFLE SHOWN
AS FAULTY WEAPON
English SharpshoOters Expert.
ment With New Pattern
Gun
.cial Cable to The Globe

Special Cable to The Globe
LONDON, March 1S.-Capt. Ernest
b. Johnston of the London rife brigade
writes to the Times that certain well
known rifle shots decided recently to
carry out a practical test in order to
ascertain whether the theoretical COM
plants against the new short rife were
well founded, and, if so, to what ex-
tent. The party consisted of Maj.
Richardson, captain of the English in
ternational team and holder of the rec
ord score at long range; Capt. Varley,
winner of the Wimbledon cup service
rifle; Lieut.. Pixley holder of short
range record score in 1904; Lieut.. Col
1ier second for the st. Georges vase
In 1902 and 1903; Armor Sergeant Full
ton, winner of Queens prize and many
others; Private Cray silver medalist
In 1903, and Private Skilton, champion
of Middlesex and member of the Eng
lish team. All of these men have rep
resented their country in international
matches and have been at one time or
another winners in various competi-
lions in which snap shooting is essen
tial. The rifles tried were:
Three new short rifles. Three long
rifles, of which each man had his own.
Three long rifles, fitted with the
"Peddie" wind gauge sight, so that the
long barrel should be on equal terms
with the short rifle in this respect.
The Peddie" sight was used because
1t was the only wind guage sight al
ready fitted to the long barrel which
could be obtained a short notice. The
short rifles and also the long rifles fit
ted with the wind gauge sights were
new weapons, and therefore, those who
carried out the tests had no previous
knowledge of their shooting capacities.
The ammunition was specially select
ed by the Kings Norton Ammunition
of
ment specification, and not that made
specially for long range practice. The
test was carried out at Bisley and the
ranges selected were 200, 600 and 500
yards. AS many trial shots were taken
as proved necessary, and after cor
rect sighting a series of seven shots
was fired by all, with two exceptions at
800 yards, with each rifle at each range,
and, IN order to insure equality of con-
dltlons the firing was conducted by
groups Of three men, a rifle of each
pattern being used simultaneously. At
the close of the trials, which lasted all
day, it was found that in the unan-
1mous opinion of all, the rifles took the
Following order of merit:
Ffrst-The long barrel fitted with
wind gauge sight.
Second-The long barrel as issued
without the above.
Th1rd-The new short rifle.
All tiiOSc ldhlIiS part IN the tests are
agreed on the following conclusions:
That the rife is badly balanced, the
weight being too much at the muzzle
end. This is due to the facts that q
considerable amount of the wood has
been bored out of the butt in order to
decrease the weight of the rife and
that the additional weight of the wood
en- cover to the fore end, together with
the heavier metal nose cap, all tend to
throw the balance further forward
That far from being likely to prove
q better snap shooting arm, it would
be easier to fire quickly with the long
rifle at any given object because the
sights of the short rife are not adapt
ed to quick firing, the front sight be-
ing too small and greatly interfered
with by the enormous protecting
Ranges on each side. The fact that the
adjusting screws of the back sights
did not work well was felt to be more
matter of detail than workmanship
That the recoil was considerably
heavier than in the long barreIed
rifle and would greatly add to the diff
hculties in teaching recruits on the
range and render it more firing
That the accuracy of the rifle as q
weapon of precision is appreciably d.
m1nished, for all experience the same
difficulty of keeping the series of shots
within the small limits of angle OBJ
tainable with both the long barreled
rifles employed.