Rifles and Rifle Shooting (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1912. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XX. TWO HUNDRED YARD SHARPSHOOTING WO hundred yard sharpshooting is one of the finest recreations connected with the use of a rifle, or for what matter any other tool. Our present off-hand sharpshooter combines the ethics of the old long rifleman of a former century with the ideals of the German or Swiss Schuetzenman. The typical American rifleman of the past was a grim and quiet chap who shot close and said nothing; he had a deadly concentration that made him unrivaled in war, but he didn't know how to play. The Schuetzenman loved the sport for its own sate. He took his family with him to the shooting park; he ate much, drank some, talked a plenty, laughed long and loud, and shot a heap whether he hit or not. Of the two classes, one was the better shot, the other the better sportsman. Formerly the German and the American shot at different targets, on separate ranges. The native son used the Standard target, a freak offspring of the military, while the Schuetzenman had his own German ring target, man target, point target, and eagle target. The American would have preferred "string measure," an exact value for every shot, had that been practicable, while the German was a great lover of chance and luck with a partiality for the eagle target in which a wooden bird was shot to pieces, the man fortunate enough to strike a certain piece being crowned "King." He liked the man target, too, with its vertical lines in which a shot ten inches off might count as much as a dead center. The American's standard of excellence was a long series of shots without a wild thrown bullet; the German gave his prize to the one who landed a single bullet in the center. One style of shooting eliminated the mediocre, the other encouraged the novice. The arms used differed widely, t...