Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-07
Camp Perry Tournament
Will Settle Questions
of Future Development
Special DISPATCH to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
CAMP PERRY, Ohio September g.
This International shooting tournament Is
regarded by informed opinion here as GER
tain to serve a larger end than the graft
fication Of contestants and the entertain
ment Of visitors. 1t is bringing emphatic
ally to the front in America the far
reaching question Of what the future de-
velopment of service and militia marks
manship In the United States should be.
Here on the Camp Perry range, in the
verse objects of European and South
American craftsmanship. on the one
hand, and of United States marksman-
ship on the other; and on this antithesis
the attention of army officers and ma
tional guardsmen is fixed.
All of the eight days rifle matches of
the International Union and the Pan
American Shooting Union are at but a
| single distance-3OO meters (32S yards
while the American matches train the
prise fire. 800. 600 500. 900. 1000 and l 200
| yards and on the skrmish field
Necessary for Qualications.
Under the War Departments latest or
der touching on Workmanship it Is
| possible to qualify without going beyond
| the 6O0-yard range That is, with the
| high perfection of the service rifle with
| its tremendous killing power at long
| ranges-the bullet pierces seventy-six
seven-eights-inch pine boards at fifty
| feet from the muzzle-the tendency Of the
country Is to stress the short range work
and to slur the long range
The 3O1-meter craftsmanship in the
Camp Perry shooting house-the boiler
house every American calls il. because
of the ear-spiittins din under the sound
| ing board roof-is, to tell the unvarnished
truth. winning no friends. but, rather
| adverse critics. 1t is probably not
| stretching the truth to say that this style
| of shooting will not have warm advo-
cate among all the service and militia
officers who break camp next Friday
evening, when Americas s first information
al shooting tournament ends. Army
| navy and civilian rifemen alike iooh
| upon this sort of short-range marksman-
| ship as not the thing needed for the
| training of sharpshooters for the public
| defense. 1t is a specialized game the
| adoption of which could be explained II
on no other ground, by the dense popula-
ton in many parts of Europe, which pre=
| vents the prosecution OF !ong-rangt
| craftsmanship.
| One Nation to Break Away.
At least one foreign nation at Camp
Perry is going to break away from the
300-meter gallery" shooting. That IL
| the Argentine Republic The Argen-
tine naval teams victory over the
| United States Navy by 122 in that spe-
! cial match the other day gave the
visitors a spur TO go in for American
! 1ong-range craftsmanship. That, it is
| authoritatively stated. they intend to
| do; and the influence of Argentine is
strong in the PanAmerican Shooting
| Union, which was started in 1912 by
| DR.. Del Pine, an Argentine senator
The methods of the visiting teams
are Of lively interest to Americans. Abb
/ solute precision of aim is their goal:
SO they wish to shoot in an inclosure
where even slight breeze may mot
i touch them, for their hair-triggers NAV
| be blown off,
| In the construction of the rifle they
| take elaborate pains No such rifles
| have ever before appeared on the Camu
Perry or Seagirt horizon. They cost a
( half dozen times more than the Amert-
can weapon. The butts have extensions
| to hold the weapon tight to the shoul-
| der. The Swiss stock has a cheekpiece
| painstakingly carved. Against this-in
| 1.-THE marksman lays his face. Ii he
! is not to get bruised, il must fit per-
/ fectly. So he has a life-mask taken
+, and from that the conformation of the
! walnut cheekpiece is carved. The
wooden knob under the free" rife in
the standing position is similarly filed
| to the exact shape Of the palm of the
! individual competitor.