Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-27
Rifle Tournament Closes To-
day at Camp Perry.
PISTOL MATCH OPENED AT 3
Plans to Change Rules in Future
Meet.
MILITIA ARE NOT SATISFIED
Unfair Advantage Is Given Regular
Army and Navy Competitors,
They Say.

They Say.
CAMP PERRY. Ohio. August 27.-The
last day of the rifle tournament opened
with the unfinished national individual
match, in which DOrtch of the Navy
team was leading at the conclusion of
yesterdays skirmsh and rapid-fire
stages The conditions were perfect.
The pistol match. the final contest of
the meeting was begun at : o'clock
with 80 contestants. This match was
won last year by Midshipman Willis ].
Lee. jr.. of indianapolis.
Last Two Events.
The last two events of the two weeks
rifle tournament are on the program to-
day the National Individual and the
National Pistol matches. under the aus
pieces of the national board for the pro-
motion of rifle practice. The National In
dividual match. firing in which began yes
terday afternoon. is fought out on the
same ranges as was the National team
match. The order. however. is different
1t began with the skirmish run. The
2o-yard rapid fire came next, followed by
the 2G0. eco. 500 and 1.E0 yards slow
fire with the service rifle and ammuni-
ton.
The winner in 1907 was Cadet Willis A
Lee. jr., of Annapolis. the young Ken
tuckian. who also thrashed the field in
the National Pistol match. Lieut.. +. H.
Dillon. Corps OF Engineers. L. S. A, took
the hOnors in 1@,i. and another regular
Serst- George Sayre. 18th Infantry. in
1904. Private James Durward of Massa-
chusetts was first in 1868 The twelve
leaders receive gold medals and cash
prizes from 500 to 81. asgregatng $500
Silver medals are awarded he contest
"a l. inc f1,.Sr r-alx- hast
and bronze medals the third twelve.
There are three special prizes of $40. with
which go gold medals. for the highest
aggregate skirmish. rapid fire and slow
fire scores.
National Pistol Match
The national pistol match. in which the
District is represented by over half the
team. is ten shots. twenty seconds shot
at seventy-f1ve yards: ten shots at TWEEN
ty-five yards and at fifty yards, with
time limit of twenty seconds for each
five shots. and ten shots rapid fire at
fifteen and twenty-five yards. eight sec
onds to each score of five shots. For
excellence in this contest there are four
gold medals and cash prizes amounting to
S95; four silver medals and $50: and
four bronze medals and $40: together with
a gold medal and SO for the best slow
fire aggregate. and gold medals and SD
prizes for the high slow-fire and rapid
fire score.
The camp is rapidly breaking I'D to-
day The majority of the teams will
have left before taps sounds on the last
night. New York and New Jersey left
last evening. Just when the District will
break camp tomorrow afternoon Major
Robbins has not decided.
Changes Needed.
That some radical changes in the con-
duet of the national match are under Sc
rious consideration by influential men,
bers of the national board for the promo
lion of rifle practice is we'll known here
Two innovations are proposed and there
is good reason for believing that they will
be effected before long, one or both of
them perhaps within a year. One is the
forcing Of the United States service teams
TO compete with the National Guard
teams on a fair footing. which is not now
the case. In the first place. the United
States Infantry. Cavalry, Navy and
Marine Corps teams are selected from all
the members Of those organizations
while state team must be picked from
a limited area
There are fnfantrymen here from the
Philippines and Cuba and sailors from
the Pacific fleet especially for the ma
tional match. Furthermore. the regulars
have unlimited time of practice for the
match, while the guarGsman having
other business, must practice as he can.
The regulars picked their squads of fif-
teen early in the spring and they have
since done practically nothing else but
live on the butts. That the regulars must
be limited both in the area from which
they may select their teams and in the
extent of their practice is strong feeling
of the officials of the state teams.
Departmental Meets.
Another change in the conduct of the
matches is up for discussion. and there
are leading rifiemen who prophesy that
it will be made in a year. This is the
splitting up of the contest for the ma
tional match into divisional competitions,
followed by final contest by few
teams for the trophy. The argument is
made that the match now is too cumber-
some. and that in the great field of COM
pettors the third-rate and fourth-rate
teams get lost The proposition to have
the states in the various sections of the
country. perhaps according to the bound
aries OF the departments of the army,
meet and pick the winner to represent
those sections at the national match
would bring to the front the less power
full teams. The little fellow would then
he large or larger and his interest would
thereby be Spurred.
These departmental competitions would
also work toward limiting the territory
from. which the members of the service
team would be picked. This plan also
calls for the shooting of the national
match on a neutral range. where none
Of the contestants had practiced, thus
putting the contest on the basis OF actual
battle conditions-unknown ground. The
winners of these simultaneous sectional
shoots would meet at some central point
get UP the next morning and fire their
hfst shots in the match. This year the
service teams camped here for from three
10 six weeks before the match opened
and worked up local conditions where
as the National Guard teams composed
of persons who have other things to do
came only a few days before the match
In a word. there is a pronounced feeling
That The national match has resolved it
self into Observation-Disclosures fight
which fact is hound to decrease interest
III the contest and To injure the cause of
rifle shooting in the National Guard
In yesterday afternoons skirmish and
rapid-fire in the national individual match
Lieut.. Powers, with ~ and 20 respective
ly, WAS high among the Districts con-
t"stants. Dortsch of the navy led the
feid with $40. In the national pistol
match there are 1-n contestants