Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-10

and Spokane. Tacoma was again taken
into camp, while North Yakima, an
other Washington club, was beaten
handily two weeks ago.
The latter two matches were won
with Decius and Kellogg absent with
the state rifle team, handicapping the
club team to some extent.
An indoor range Is being planned by
the club, to be used with a company
of the local national guard, and
matches have been arranged with both
Seattle and Tacoma for the indoor
shooting of rife and revolver. The
national guardsmen are compelled to
qualify their men on the indoor ranges
as well as outdoors to obtain high
mark for the years work. recent
addition of a locker room to the drill
floor of the armory prevents any more
shooting on the old range at this point,
and several of the companies are look
ing for a place to shoot indoors with
out interfering with the drill floor Of
the armory.
Interest in the rifle shooting game Is
growing in Southern California, de-
spite the many other attractions that
tend to prevent a regular following of
the game.
Two years more of the present prog
ress will see Southern California in
the lead in rifle shooting-both by
militia and civilian rifiemen-as it is
in other lines of sports.
No Good Ranges
The great handicap at present under
which civilian clubs and militiamen
labor alike Is the lack of ranges and
the poor ones that are provided. Civil
ian rifle clubs have the right to the
use of national guard and regular army
ranges, but in Southern California the
ranges are insufficient for the use OF
even the militia-for which they are
built primarily. With this the case,
the civilian clubs are forced to pro-
vide their own ranges at an expense
which they can i'll afford after paying
for their own expensive ammunition
and rifles
In the whole length and breadth Of
CALIFORNIA; state where rifle shooting
can be carried on outdoors the year
round-there is not single even half
way respectable range from eastern
standards The range used by the Los
Angeles militia is the best that can be
obtained by the local officers with the
money at their disposal, but it is poor
one, and still worse fitted up. Pits un-
supported by concrete and caVing in
with each rain, wooden target frames
ludL warp vi lCcli " EADSCS AACiAA -
bullets that hit them, no wind flags to
indicate what is doing in the zephyr
lines-tie only wonder is that Los An
geles militiamen do as well as they
manage to do under the circumstances.
The fault is not with the officers, but
with the legislature for failing to ap-
propriate enough money for a first
class California state range, ample for
the accommodation of all the men wish
ing to use it. Still better would be four
great ranges-in view of the immense
size of the state-one in Southern Cali
fornia, one in the San Joaquin valley,
one at San Francisco and one farther
north.
Modern ranges are equipped with tel
ephone systems, the wires laid under
ground to prevent their being cut by
bullets. The targets are hung on steel
frames that move with a touch of the
hand, and the pits are neat, concreted
affairs that afford room for the markers
and are in working order despite the
rain that may fall A range of this
description does not exist in the entire
state, and militiamen and civilian rifle
men suffer alike.