RIFLE-SHOOTING

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 65, 10 December 1930, Page 19

RIFLE-SHOOTING

Wellington Meeting

(By “Pull-through.”)

Encouraged by the success that attended the holding of the last annual meeting on Anniversary Day, the Wellington Rifle Association intends to hold its coming annual fixture on January 22 again next year. Hitherto it has been the practice of the association to arrange its meeting for New Year’s Day, but the increased entries that were received when it was held on Anniversary Day this year more than justified the change that was made. Programmes for the meeting are now available.

Twelve matches are included in the programme. The prize money totals £2OO in cash, while the club also has several valuable trophies which are offered for competition. The day's shooting will commence with a service match at 300 yards, rapid fire, and after this has been disposed of competitors will have an opportunity to shoot a more tractable type of target, and under conditions to which they are more accustomed. Other matches include the Upper Hutt Match, of 300 yards; Petone Match, of 500 yardsKarori Match, of 600 yards; Suburbs Match, of 800 yards; and Old Navals Match, of 900 yards. The Midfield Aggregate will be awarded to the highest aggregate scorer with handicap in the three short range matches, and the Handicap Aggregate for the' short range matches and the two longe range matches. The ehampionship aggregate is awarded for the same series of matches as the handicap aggregate, but scores are off the rifle. The optional aggregate, off the rifle, is for scores at 300, 600 and 800 yards. A handicap teams’ match will be held for the Osmond Shield. It is open to teams Of’four men from any company or defence rifle club, and will be fired concurrently with the matches at 500, 600, andf 800 yards. There is a long range aggregate for the scores in the two longrange matches. • Entries will be received by the secretary, Mr. George Voyce, 11 Donald McLean Street,. Wellington, Whitcombe and Caldwell,-, or W. H. Tisdall, Ltd., up to Monday, Jririuary 19. at 5 p.m.

Counting Out. To the uninitiated the system of counting out conveys a very vague impression ; in fact, to the non-shooting person it is invariably not understood. To the marksman, however, it is understood only too well, and illustrates very often the luck of the game. , n , That rifle shooting is attended by a certain amount of good fortune cannot be denied, and it is just that element that makes the sport worth while. . The bad luck aspect of “counted out may be illustrated by a competitor shooting', say, at 500 yards tinder anything but good conditions. He manages by good judgment to put together 40, and rises from the firing- point entirely satisfied with himself and everything in general; in fact, his rifle has not behaved better. His score, perhaps, for some time leads ■the field until more congenial conditions eventuate, when a possible or two —4J s. 48’s, and 47’s —are run" on with monotonous regularity. At the end of the match he finds himself “counted out with a hard-earned 46, and grouses about the luck of some people. It may be that a competitor with the same score has superseded him in the prize list because he has finished with three “bulls ’ against the other man’s two. As stated above, it is just the luck of the game, and the rifleman who was counted out with 46 might, .with a certain amount of good fortune, have been shooting whtsn the good scores were registered. In a recent number of the N.R.A. Journal” a contributor states his reasons why the system of “counting out” should be reversed. That is to say. that a shootist should be counted out from the start of his score and not from the end. He maintains, with a'certain degree of Truth, that .in wartime the man who scored a bull's-eye to start with, and kept on scoring bull’s-eyes, was of more value as a marksman than the person who started with other than a “bull.” He contends, further, that the quicker a man hit "bulls” under (hose Conditions the quicker the numbers of the enemy decreased.

. He states also that the young shot who is going strongly for a possible knows I that if he scores a full card he will lead t the field. It is this knowledge, according to the contributor's . contention, that .makes the youngster miss-"the bull with his last shot and register an inner an attack, of nerves.