Evening star., 1917-03-18
WITH THE
RIFLE CLUBS

Charles Z. Miner was elected presi-
| dent oc the Young Mems Christian AS
sociat on Rifle Club at the organization
meeting last Saturday night. Other Of
I ticers are: Vice president. James w.
Love: secretary. Millard S. Hale; treas
urer L. : Hale. and executive officer,
James W. Ryan. Several members
qualified as marksmen in the shoot held
last week at the Eastern market range
To show the interest taken in rifle
shooting by the employees of the De
partlnent of Agriculture the following
story is told of an actual happening
last week:
whats the score?" asked one of the
clerks of the department.
,qqi to 900" was the reply.
What are you talking about. crlck-
et?" inquired a hystander .
No SAID the frs: speaker Il was
irving to find out the score made ny
the Secretary's office team at the indoor
range at Eastern market last night.
Nearly a thousand of the depart
meut's employees are conSclentouSlS
learning how to handle the service rifle
so as to be able to do their bit if Uncle
Sam should need them in the trenches
And you would be surprised how quick
ly men who have done just ordinary
shooting and men VINO nave never
fans over the shooting game. The de-
partment has ten clubs representing
the different bureaus and ofices and a
great deal of rivalry is eVlnced at ali
the shoots. It is getting TO De worse
than base ball. 1t is contended. because
all most of them will talk about is how
many they centered IN the plack,
with post mortems in the shape OF uh-
familiar guns" or faulty elevation OF
'.windaGe' every time tney oon MT :"
IA N the center,
The large enrolment of employees OF
the department as members OF the rllle
clubs is due, the organizers state TO
the fact that every effort has been
made to encourage men who knew abb
solutely nothing about shooting to take
up rifle work a highly desirable
recreation and a duty which every man
owes to his country.
At first some absolute novices We're
reluctant to appear at the indoor range
fearing that their awkwardness ana
lack of skill would be the basis for
"joshing" The Marine Corps corporalS
assigned by the Navy Department as
instructors from the start made 1t clear
that this was a serious undertaking,
and that their one interest IN llfe was
to teach those who could not shoot at
all to become good marksmen and TO
help men used to guns to increase their
accuracy with the standard service rifle
No kidding was allowed, and even to-
day the only joshing that is permitted
is when one of the high-score men is
Off form and becomes the goat as PIC
tured in the cartoon on the blackboard
at the range. Instruction from start to
finish is buSinesSlike.
Before a novice shoots at n target the
instructors coach him carefully in the
loading and handling of the gun. He is
shown how to use the sling on the gun
and the position to take so as to mini
mize muscular interference with the
accuracy of sighting. Finally, after
preliminary coaching, he is placed with
the loaded rifle in front of the 50-yard
target. the corporal studies every move
ment to see if he twitches any muscle
unduly, and to see that his pull on the
trigger is such as to discharge the car
fridge without causing him to spoil his
aim. After the shot is fired and the
scorer has announced whether it is in
the black, or whether. for example. 1t
is "5 O'Clock A. Indicating that he has
fred too low and TO the right, the cor
poral explains kindly and patiently just
what error of sighting, pulling or posi-
tion the novice has fallen into. He is
drilled into correcting these personal
idiosyncrasies and in a very short time
the gun begins to feel natural to him.
He does not hold it as if he We're
afraid that it was going to get away
from him. is in no hurry to pull the
trigger until the sights are on the mark
and does not finch with the shot. Very
quickly his placing becomes improved.
All the talk is in terms like 'in the
black or pin Wheels" or in terms of
hours. The target is regarded the same
as the face of the clock. Thus o'clock
would be directly below the bull's-eye
and o'clock directly to the left of the
bulrs-eye. To these figures the scorer
adds nun bers-4 to indicate that the
shot is in the first ring around the
black, or to show that it has gone
into the second ring around the black
A count of is given for anything on
the target outside Of the two rings.
The eagerness of the men to center
a majority of their shots in the black
which counts 5, is exceeded only by
the anxiety of the big-league ball
players to fatten their batting aver
ages Shooting rapidly becomes an alb
sorbing pastime, and as the only cost