Jones sheepishly corrected his sight, and the next shot on his target
was marked a "pinwheel."
Thus it was the coach went up and down the firing line, offering the
advice of long and successful experience.
At the completion of the firing at 200 yards the line of riflemen moved
back to the 300-yard point, and taking the sitting or kneeling position,
began the next stage of the course. A "possible" or perfect score of
ten shots would mean fifty points towards the three hundred points
necessary to qualify the men as marksmen, and this they would have to
get in order to be permitted to shoot the sharpshooter’s course. The
firing at 200 yards was the hardest in Dick’s estimation, and though he
had started off with a bull’s-eye, or five, as already stated, he did
not continue to see the little white marker or spotter in the black
space as he hoped would be the case. His first and last shots were
fives and the rest fours, making his total score forty-two. Henry was
six points below centers, or thirty-four.
Three hundred yards was an easy range for Dick and he surprised himself
with the high score at that stage--forty-seven points, all bulls but
three, which fell close outside in the four-ring. Henry had made one
over centers, or a score of forty-one.
"Now we will go back to five and six hundred yards," said Battiste.
"Each man must fire two sighting shots at both those ranges before he
can count his shots for record. The firing will be the same as it was
in instruction--from the prone position. I expect every man to average
up his score at the 500-yard range, for the bull looks as big as a
barn-door, and you can’t miss it. You know we change the size of the
targets now and use the mid-range or B-target, and the bull’s-eye is
twenty inches in diameter. In the short-range or A-target it is but
eight inches, and in the long-range or C-target it is thirty-six inches.
For this reason B-target at 500 yards and C-target at 800 yards are what
we call ’easy marks.’"
"Supposing we fire the twelve shots and the first ten are bulls but the
last two goose eggs, would the latter count against you?" asked Henry,
as he rearranged the leather sling on his rifle around his left arm
before lying down.
"It’s your last ten shots which count," replied the coach. "Firing
regulations require you to take the two sighting shots, and you can’t
juggle them around to suit yourself; they’ve got to be the first two
fired. The mirage is no longer boiling straight up,[#] but it’s moving
off to the right a bit, so I’d advise you all to take your sighting
shots, make your own deductions and then wait for me to see how nearly
correct you are."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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