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step oy step witn tne auvanee 01 eivu- 1 ization, the use of the rifle has disap- j peared from the old and settled States, \passing away to the west and south- , west, but lingering in the valleys of the j Alleghany ridges, while the borderers | of the extreme west only retain it with- | in the march of the bison columns and j Indian raiding parties. The revival of (the rifle as a weapon in these late days \ has been accompanied with considerable lt;change in its form and manner of use, consequent on the new role it has to . play. The rifle of the last century, both jin Europe and America, was first a j hunting weapon, and only secondly animplement of war. The American rifle,long and heavy, carrying a bullet hardly larger than a pea, had a special value , for our old trappers and frontiersmen.It enables them to carry a great many ( rounds in small compass, and to start out lor a summer’s trip, like the trap- , pers of the Northwestern Fur Company, with a pound of powder and four pounds of lead for their whole provision, allowing two shots a day for six months. Its aim within a hundred and fifty yards or so, was amazingly accurate, and the stories of squirrels shot in theeye on a tree top, or of “driving thenail” into a tree with a bullet, at one hundred paces, were no exaggerations. With such a tinny bullet it was necessary to shoot close, and touch brain or heart of the game every time, when dinner depended on success.Since the Dollymount victory, theAmerican rifle movement has made still more rapid strides. The California, Nevada, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island Rifle Associations have beenfounded, and possess handsome ranges. Baltimore has just started its club, Aew Orleans has another, Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama, have followed suit. Richmond has its coterie of marksmen, Saratoga its club, while the line of the Hudson River Railroad counts at least four ranges, of Yonkers, Irvington, Poughkeepsie, and Hudson. The sport has fairly “taken hold.”Tf r»nlv rpmnins tn SrtV a few Words asto the international matches of the present year, and our chances therein, to close the subject, without wearying theunprofessional reader with dry details of technical points. The contests for places on the American team of 1876have just closed, with the following results : The team will be composed of eight men, all good and true, with a reserve of four. We are no longer com pelled to rely on the “immortal six.”The only members of the teams of 1874v»nri iu'hn will shoot in the team of1876, are Dakin, Fulton and Yale. The rest will be new men. Bodine rests onhis laurels, Gildersleeve has shot hisway into a pooularity that has madeKim a in/lnrn with a DPlflrV Of $14,000 a’; Coleman has gone to work at his books once more ; Hepburn is satisfied to make that queen of weapons,the “Creedmoor Rifle,” without spending his time shooting it. The team of 1676. soon to be famous, will comprise strange names, and the average proportion of the possible score which the whole team can be relied on to make is showm in the preliminary contests to beat least eighty-three per cent. TheIrish, in their contests at Dundalk, and the Bcotch at Cow Glen, have so farmade an average of eighty per cent only, but it must be remembered thatthe contests wTere shot in wind and rainstorms, w’hiletheGreedmoor trials have been in beautiful summer weather. The indications are that the contest willbe closer than the figures seem at firstsight to warrant, and that the scores or 1876 will excel those of previous years as much as those of Dollymount excelled all that went before.—Frederick
Newspaper Details
Van Wert Weekly Bulletin
Van Wert, Ohio, US
Fri, Jul 28, 1876
Page 4
Full Page
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IL, USA 21 Nov 2019
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