RIFLE RANGES AND RIFLE CLUBS.
IP the real results of the invention of long-range rifles have only been discovered by our officers in the present war, no one can be surprised, however unpleasant the dis- covery. In the Franco-Prussian War the needle-gun was really a short-range weapon, while the French had not time to discover the powers of the chassepot before they were beaten. In the war of 1877, though two thousand Turks entrenched at Gorny Dribnik beat off a division of the Russian Guards, neither Russians nor Turks were in any sense marksmen, and Plevna and the Schipke Pass were defended, not by good shooting, but by quick shooting. It was the rapid-firing breech action, not the long-ranging bullet, which slew its thousands on either side.
The Boers, on the other hand, have so entirely realised the altered conditions caused by the extension of the range of fire of their weapons, that a correspondent of the Pall .ilfall Gazette states that one in every four of these farmers carries a good field-glass slung over his shoulder. In preparing either to attack or defend a position the Boer does not rely on mere eyesight. He brings his sight up to the improved standard of his gun by the aid of "machinery," the owners of field-glasses coaching in their turn those who have none, as to the point beyond the range of clear vision at which they are to aim. When the survivors of two batteries were unfortunately taken prisoners at the battle of the Tugela, the officers were naturally provided with field-glasses to aid in judging how to lay the guns, work which no one would think of leaving to the unaided eye. These glasses were at once taken from them, and appropriated by the Boer rifle- men, who were only too pleased to have this chance of annex- ing the aids to sight used by our artillerymen to provide what they deemed a most necessary part of the equipment of infantry. This, while it demonstrates that modern shooting has passed altogether out of the list of things which are obvious and only need a little practice, into the regions of technical training, adds to the difficulty of giving this training, while it emphasises the necessity for it. It is all very well, for instance, to object that the foreign teams which beat our picked shots last autumn used all kinds of appliances to get a better result. It may not have been fair in that particular com- petition, but "all's fair in war," and if the art of using aids and contrivances to good shooting, and of familiarity with so artificial a business as this now is, were under- stood as generally in this country as the tricks of Association football, or even of golf, we should be more formidable as a nation. If the men of military age in half a dozen of our largest towns had this practical knowledge, and could be embodied in a mobile force, they would be irre- sistible. If there were clear grounds for believing that urgent national danger to be at hand, both the past and the present show that great personal sacrifices would be made to meet it. At present the position is not eo bad as that, though the warnings of the past week have not been disregarded. But neither national peril, nor the sacrifices demanded by such peril, would be so likely to arise if we educated ourselves in the use of weapons. What ought to take place at the present moment, and is only waiting for some signal to give the impulse, is a spontaneous movement like that which led to the formation of the Volunteers, who, though drilled and put into uniform, were intended, at a time when the nation suddenly became aware that invasion was possible, to be marksmen, and to use the then new' weapon—the rifle—as citizen-soldiers possess- ing a weapon of precision which they knew how to use. What we now need is a like conviction among all classes leading to the practice of the art of shooting, which as things now shape themselves is clearly the first and most important branch of the business of men-in-arms. If the change is to come from outside it must come in the form of orders from the Secretary of State, under an Act of Parlia- ment, that all persons of a certain age should " pass " in rifle-shooting or be liable to some extra contribution to national defence. It would also be possible to vote moneys for ranges, ammunition, and rifles, and to have an enabling order by which: any local authority could borrow money to make a range, and apply for the guns and ammunition, and to pay to each person who showed proficiency a small annual grant of cash so long as he kept up to the required standard, or to grant a handsomely worded "diploma," which can be framed and glazed, such testimonials being always keenly pried by the rank-and-file Englishman. It would be far better that a voluntary system of rifle clubs, buch as Mr. Baillie Grohman recently advocated in the Nineteenth Century and a correspondent suggested in the Spectator of December 23rd, could grow up and flourish amongst us, as it has grown up and flourishes in Switzerland or Tyrol. The shooting would be better because the interest in it was keen and personal, and the sporting instinct would tend to improve it by matches and competitions. The diffi- culties in the way are mainly two. The first is that the public has become spoilt and fussy, and practically objects to rifle ranges anywhere but in a solitude. Hence, more than two hundred and fifty ranges have been closed on the ground that they are not safe for the use of modern rifles. These ranges must, so far as is possible, be reopened, after a proper sum has been spent in building screen walls behind the targets. This is costly, no doubt. But with what force can objectors cavil at an expenditure of, say, £250,000 in saving two hundred and fifty rifle ranges, when £3,000,000 are to be spent shortly on making narrow streets wider for traffic in the area under the London County Council ? In the same way open spaces are most important to the health of London. But if Wormwood Scrubbs were given over for two days in the week to rifle practice, the same sum which built one of the many wards of the vast military prison there would con- struct ten safe ranges side by side, on the German principle, in which the able-bodied men of West London might learn the use of weapons. For markers and instructors we could not do better than to employ retired soldiers, with pensions granted on the understanding that they are competent to teach the elementary part of marksmanship. In Switzerland the rifles are cleaned by the members of the rifle clubs, who, take their turns both at this and at the ranges, looking on this as no less a matter of course than any other part of their weekly business. The greengrocer or baker, for example, will mention that he cannot come round with his cart on such a day as it is his turn to shoot or to clean rifles. Bat as we, unlike the Swiss, have a professional army, the care and maintenance of ranges and rifles would give employment to retired soldiers. The nation would, or ought to, be glad to supply any number of rifles required, and ammunition, provided that this was expended in a proper manner when the range-man was on duty. Village rifle clubs are attractive in theory, and would be useful in practice. The rifle club would have few com- petitors, for amusement is scarce, and this one, which any one can join in by walking down to the range when he hears shots being fired, exactly suits the uncertain hours of rural recreation. But for national defence such a movement is likely to be most useful, not where population is thinnest, but where it is thickest. A city like Coventry, or Northamp- ton, or Leicester, or part of a city like West or East London, or Salford, which owned good ranges, and whose people flocked there in thousands to shoot on Saturdays, would "give points" to other urban districts where this was neglected; and the men of that town would hold the place of "crack" regiments in a volunteeer army, with the support of intense local pride in their prowess. The Germans have already shown how to make the ranges in such places. A narrow strip of ground, up to any dis- tance available, has a high earth-bank raised on each side, which stops all stray bullets on either side. At the end is a high and mighty wall, and to prevent bullets flying even over this from ricochets, boxes of earth and stones cross the ranges at short intervals, which intercept such grazing bullets. Where a road crosses the "line" a gate, like a railway gate, is fixed, from which a red flag is projected over the range if crossing is urgent. The system is practically safe, and has stood years of ttial. There is not the least doubt that if all these mechanical and pecuniary difficulties were met in some such way as is suggested above, the rifle clubs would grow up spontaneously. It might be well to add to the training of all the boys in the Boaird.schools in towns practice with that useful invention, the Morris tube, which, fitted into a rifle-barrel, converts a Lee-Metford into a pea-rifle, and renders it suitable for use in any courtyard or covered miniature range. Such practice is regularly carried on in some of the London secondary schools. In most other clubs for the pursuit of physical pastime, such as cricket, football, gymnastics, hockey, aka' ing, and swimming, men combine to continue pursuits
which they learnt as boys. This inexpensive and quite practicable mode of suggesting a taste for rifle-shooting by means of the national system of education should not be neglected. It was noticed that in the London suburb] almost the only places of amusement open on the morning of Boxing Day were the email rifle galleries, which were crowded from an early hour, though every shot costs a penny, about four times the price of the cartridges if bought wholesale.
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