VILLAGE RIFLE CLUBS.
(To TUE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—By the encouragement of your paper, of which I have for years been a reader, our miniature rifle range has been opened and working for some time. It may help other villages to revive the ancient sport of straight shooting to know how and for how much this has been done. No more timely happy present by squire or parson can be made at Christmastide to our villages (indeed, it is a gift to the nation) than this means of reviving the time-honoured pastime. Reviving; for by the Act of Edward III. "every one strong in body at leisure on holy days shall learn and exercise the art of shooting, forsaking such vain plays as throwing stones, handball, football, bandyball, or cock-fight- ing, which have no profit in them": and quaint Bishop Latimer saith "it is a goodly and wholesome kind of exercise, and much commended as physic." Our tithe. barn is 45 ft. long, and full of farm implements. A small chamber at one end, 8 ft. from the ground, is the firing point. We shoot through a hole 18 in. square in one corner of this chamber on to an old boiler-plate (4 ft. by 3 ft., which was given to us), supported at 12 ft. from the ground on a wooden beam set in the two walls at the opposite corner. On two tight parallel cords fixed at the base of the boiler-plate, and at an equal height outside the hole in the firing chamber, runs the carrier (or little four. wheeled waggon) holding up two iron wire arms, into a bend in the top of which the paper target is fixed. An endless cord (like that on a blind-roller) with a wheel about 1 ft. across at the firing chamber end draws the carrier quickly to and from the boiler-plate, which is painted black to show up the target. A thick cross-beam in the roof shields the little paraffin lamp : this is raised and lowered over two pulleys by a thin chain. Our villagers have improved wonderfully in their shooting since the range has been opened. The outlay has been: a Colt's 22 cal. repeating rifle, f',2 10s. ; cord and twine, 2s. The cartridges are is. 2d. the hundred, the targets (one of which we give to each shooter) is. the hundred. These and the trifling expense of lighting the range are paid for by a charge of id. for every four shots. Rifles and ammunition can be had at 17 Victoria Street, S.W. I will gladly send the simple rules found necessary to any one starting a range.—I am, Sir, &c., Hoby Rectory, near .Leicester. E. ADEN BERESFORD.
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