Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-24

English team scoring 426 to the Ameri-
can 425 at this stage. At all the 9TH
er ranges the Americans led the other
teams by a comfortable margin the
final score for all the ranges being as
follows;
United States 2531, England 1896
Canada 2489, France 2272, Sweden 2213,
Norway 2192, Greece 1886 and Den
mark 1909.
Improvement of Workmanship
For 1909 the scores have improved
so wonderfully that it would be only
folly for any other nation to enter
team against a picked team from the
United States and the only difficulty
would lie in selecting a team from the
thousands of expert shots who would
be eligible, in view of the many pos
sbles" at present being made in the
early part of the matches at Camp
Perry.
At the present time the National
Rifle association matches are just be-
ing finished at Camp Perry and the
national match will begin in a few
days. This is, of course, the main
event at the shoot. In this great team
match twelve men comprise team,
with three substitutes"
they would be called in football. The
ranges include 200. 600 800 and 1000
yards, with rapid fire at 200 yards and
n skirmish run from 600 yards down
to 200 yards.
California will be represented by a
picked team, Los Angeles having two
men, Sergeants Kellogg and DeCius On
the team this year but for some rea-
son the Golden State. a leader in all
other sports, failed to make much of a
showing in, the rife matches. Last
year she stood nineteenth. the year
before in twentY-fourth place and the
year preceding that she landed TWEEN
ty-fifth place, being beaten out by
teams from states like Washington,
Oregon and Oklahoma, where they
have about one-fourth the number of
men in the militia that California can
show.
The rifle used by the militia and the
regular army and shot in the great rifle
matches is what is known as the New
Springfield. the name Springfield"
taken from the arsenal in Massachu-
setts where the rifle is principally mode
and it being called New to distin-
guish it from the old Springfield used
by our army from the time of the civil
war to 1880. The New Springfield is
admittedly the finest military rife
ever produced, from every stand
point, being practically the world
famous Mauser made over according
to American ideas. 1t weighs eight
and three-qua"ter pounds, has bar
rel tWentY-f0ur inches long and uses
a bullet of but 150 grains weight, but
travelling a 200 feet per second. To
give an idea Of what this means it
n ,ght be said that the bullet from the
OLD rifles with which our civil war was
fought Travelled but 1900 feet per sec
Ond. The wonderful accuracy of
these rifles is shown by the records
made this year at Camp Perry and by
the victory of the American team over
the foreigners at Bisley in 1908.
Scores Are Always Close
The targets used in the great matches
are three distinct sizes. The 200 and
300 yard ranges, as well as the rapid
fire are shot on target a" having an
eight-inch bullseye counting five
points; a circle of tWenty-six inch
diameter counting four points, a still
larger circle counting three points and
measuring fortY-sX inches across and
the balance of the target counting two
points, the entire target being four
feet by six feet. The target used at
500 and 900 yards and for the sllirlnish
is target "B," having the bullsevc
twenty inches across, the four ring
thirty-seven inches and the three ring
fifty-three inches and the balance
counting iNb, llle Target DelhB SIX lFel
square The long ranges. 800 900 and
1000 yards as we'll as the 1900 yard
distance called for in the famous Ne
vada match. are shot on target GO"
with a thirty-siX inch bullseye, a fif-
ty-four-inch four ring. with the three
ring occupying the balance of the six
foot square. There is no two ring
either above or below the bullseve. but
shots striking either to the left or
right of the siX-fOot square. are scored
as tWos, three-foot wings being added
on to either side of the regular six
foot target and the entire target meas
uring twelve feet long by six feet high.
AS an example of what a prize Win
ming in the big individual matches
must face, it might be said that last
year 317 crack shots entered in the
presidents match" the first twenty
five men being within fifteen points
of one another out of a possible $50
points. The eight high men were
within six points of one another and
a single point will ordinarily win or
lose the match.