The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-05
PRACTISING FOR SEA GIRT.
New York's Ri1e shooters Expect o Hard
Match for National trophy This Year.

w.
Match for National Trophy This Year.
On every rhe range In tho country the
Guardsmen Of thirty-nine States and the
doughboys and the troopers OF tho Regular
army are being groomed into shape for the
biggest rife meeting ever held on Ameri-
can soil. Down on the historic
range, where an American team scored the
FIRST victory over al English rife team,
back in the '7os, the New York team, winner
OF the national match for three consecutive
years, the bluejaokets OF the navy team
and the sea soldiers OF the Marine Corps
are rounding into form for the big match.
Not only will these forty-three teams,
representative OF the best shots in the
Regular establishment and the State militia,
face the targets in the national match on
September 4 at Sea Cir. ". j., but the scores
OF rife clubs organized in recent years by
civilians, collegians and ~schoolboys Will
add their quoth In the various matches
scheduled before the big team match.
The national individual match last year
drew ESQ entries, and the additional incentive
Of tho 81 900 cash prize for tbs winner Of this
match will undoubtedly bring the entry list
Close UP to the thousand mark. OF the
t~hirty-nine teams that hot for the national
trophy held by New York last year Hawaii
and the West Pointers have failed to enter
for the 1908 match. Louisiana, Oklahoma,
Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and Colorado
have joined the lists, however, and the Sea
GIrt range facilities will DO taxed to the
limit. Preparations are making for the
large field, and with forty targets for the
short and midranges, forty-three for the
long ranges and twenty-four skirmis
groups, the teams can be we'll handled.
The skirmish field, second only to the Fort
Riley field last year, has been improved,
the bank being raised and braced.
or the six winners In the national match
last year New York is developing a team
fully up to Its past standard on the Creed
moor range. The army infantry team,
second last year. has been shooting for a
month at Fort Niagara. The Ohio team Is
developing on Its home grounds. The
marines and sailors, fourth and fifth re-
spectively, are in training at Creedmoor,
a VIGOROUSLY hard range. but en- excellent
one for the strengthening OF a team. New
Jersey was the last of the place winners.
The cavalry team is shooting on the Fort
Sheridan range in Illinois, and the Virginia
militlamen are to train on the new range
built by the Marine Corps near Yorktown.
The liberality OF Congress has provided the
majority OF the States with good ranges,
and with greater liberality in the allowance
OF ammunition and a healthy renewal OF
interest in rifle practice the flight Of. steel
jacketed projectiles IL booming In all
sections of the ountry
The ball will open on Monday. August n,
when the combined meetings OF the National
Rifle Association and the New jersey State
Rife Association will begin.
Cash prizes amounting to So, 1893 and a
score Of trophies will be shot for before
,Io arut efaua Of tho national taam match
on Tuesday, September 4. The Presidents
match, virtually the individual champion
ship, will be the attraction on Labor Day.
The matches held from August n to Sep.
tember include individual matches at all
ranges, slow and rapid fire and team rang
ing from four to eight men in every COM
bination of slow, rapid and skirmish fire.
The classic event OF the individual events
is the Wimbledon cup match, twenty shots
at 1000 yards, the favorite match Of the
cracks and accepted by them as the long
range championship.
The Dryden trophy, for teams Of eight
men with ten sbotsa at 200, 900 and 1000 yards,
and the regimental skir1nish are the matches
par excellence of the team events and hand
some trophies go with each. The inter
collegiate match, won by Princeton last
year, and the U. NJ. C. match. for school boys
under Is years Of age, are already wing in
popularity with older established events.
This year the Tigers will be- opposed by
Columbia, Yale, Cornell, pennsylvania and
George Washington. The schoolboys will
nave their innings, competing for sixteen
cash prizes at 200 yards. In addition they
will be eligible for entry In a soore Of indi-
vidual matches. A special camp site is
under preparation for them, and while at
Sea Girt they will have the benefit Of the
coaching OF Capt. George W. Corwin, one
OF the S~eventy-irst coaches. The New
York schoolboys, having developed into
clever marksmen by constant practice on
the sub-target machine gun provided for
the public schools by Gen George W. Win
gate, Harry Payne Whitney, Ed Lau-
terbach and other active members Of the
Public Schools Athletic League. are eager
to try conclusions with the seasoned experts
Of the outdoor range.
While New York has won the national
match with unvarying regularity for the
three years of it's existence as the big rife
match of the country, her loss Of four men
for three consecutive years from her win
ming teams has en- oouraged the other teams
to great exertions. The infantrymen and
cavalrymen of the Regular service, the
navy and marines and, Of the State forces,
Ohio; District Of Columbia, New Jersey,
Massachusetts and Illinois are formidable
competitors, and from all neither
New York nor any other team will have a
Taikoyer under such lively competition.