THE SERVICE RIFLE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 211, 5 September 1900, Page 2

THE SERVICE RIFLE.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

* ' LONDON, July 28. The annudJ shooting- contests at Bisley this .year huve been shorn of a good' deal of their interest by reason of the absence of so many of our crack shots in places where the targets are mainly invisible, and when seen are not of the black or white variety. Yet Bisley has taught us one lesson, and that is to beware o£ the man who uses statistics to prove that ihe British service rifle is a weapon inferior in all respects to the arms used by other countries. Not long ago there was a good deal written, and a good dea Imore talked, about the alleged infei'iority of our service rifle. We were told, with much use of statistics, that the Lee-Metl'ord and Lee-Enfleld were bad weapons, at least when compared with the Mauser, the Mannlicher, the Lee straightpull, and so on; and it was prophesied that we should be awakened further to a sense of the shortcomings of our own rifle when comparison coiild be made of the respective merits of the LeeVMetford and the Mannlicher at Bisley. That comparison we are now able to make through an account of the regular and volunteer officers, in which a choice of rifles was allowed. There were six officers in each team. Of the winning team, two shot with the Lee-Metf ord, one with the' Leewith Lee-Enfield, four with Mannlicher; of the losing team, one shot. with Lee-Enlield, four with Manulicher, and one with the Swiss x'ille. Seven, good shots, therefore, out of a total of twelve, pinned their faith to the Mannlicher as the best rifle. But what did the results show?' The highest score, 202 out of a possible 225, was made with the Lee-Metf ord; while only two of . the seven Mann* lichers used made higher scores than the lowest made by the service rifle. The three highest scores of the service rifle amounted altogether to 590 points out of a possible 675; the three highest scores of the Mannlicher amounted to 574; and that, it must be remembered, happened when "there were only four service rifles being used, as against seven Mannlichers. There would be nothing < illogical, therefore, in drawing the inference that, given six equally good shots, three using the service rifle and three the. Mannlicher, the service rifle would win; or else, that the best shots prefer the service rifle. Whichever is' the correct conclusion neither would be unsatisfactory.