DEFENCE NOTES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144666, 28 April 1915, Page 5

DEFENCE NOTES.

(By “Scout.”) Tho casual ramp begins on Monday at Palmerston North. Local Territorials will leave by the mail train. A number of members of A Company, about equal in strength to one platoon, will attend at the court on Thursday morning to explain their negligences in the matter of attendance at parades to the S.M. I do not know who is responsible for the report of the Cadet Hide Meeting at Inglewood, but ho makes a very ridiculous statement. He says, inter alia; “In the afternoon, while the. 500 yards’ range was under way. a varying wind baffled many of the competitors, especially those who were accustomed to aperture sights,” etc. Now the only company in the Senior Cadets that I know ol who have, in the language of Scripture, ‘‘gone—well—after strange gods” (Scriptural language is excellent with omissions) in the matter of rifle sights are the New Plymouth High School Cadets. Turning to tho scores inode in this particular match, one llnds it headed by two High School boys ‘‘accustomed to the use of aperture sights.” etc. The grand aggregate is headed by three High School Cadets, and the teams match non by their team with a margin of 101 points. So much for aperture sights; the rifle was used as issued: i.e., with tho ordinary sights. Finality was not reached when the

“V” ami Barleycorn sight was adopted. There is room for improvement in rifle sights, and a perfect sight still remains to bo invented. Let me commend to the correspondent the following quotations from Greener’s ‘‘Sharpshooting for War and Defence” 'The experience of most good riflemen is that the notch is not the best form of backsight. that it appears loss conspicuous and more ‘blurred’ when the eye is iocussed upon n mark at 1000 yards’ distance than a straight line whoso centre is indicated by a perpendicular white line reaching almost, but not quite to the upper edge. . . Against the pyramidal foresight it is contended mat the shape does not allow of easy distinction ol different degrees,” etc. Further on he speaks of the use of telescopic sights for night shooting, and says: ‘‘Shooting in tho dark is by no means difficult as long os the object can bo discerned. ... In tho United States high scores have been made at long ranges when shooting in the semidarkno.ss and at an illuminated target. On a bright moonlight night good shooting has been made at from ?00 to 1000 yards. Captain W. H. Richard, who experimented with a telescopic sight at midnight firing at SOU yards, says his shots found their proper place on' the target about as well as though the shooting had been done .in tho daylight. He scored 91 out of a possible 100, getting twelve ‘eyes’ consecutively, and in 15 shots ho scored 73 out of a possible 7.5 points. Lieut.-Colonel Winder, firing at night with only- n camp fire for illumination, made 9S out of a possible 100 at 800 yards. Such shooting has not been made with open sights,