RIFLE AND RANGE

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20205, 16 January 1934, Page 11

RIFLE AND RANGE

WITH THE .303 s: By

“TRIGGER.”

mTVBIf. January 20—Christchurch Defence Rifle Club’s fourth three-range competition, at Tai Tapu. January 20—Rangiora Defence Rifle Club's eighth club competition. February 24—Canterbury Rifle Association’s Jack Shield competition. March 7 to 10—National Meeting, at Trentham. « K « About HoldingThe following article on “ Holding.” by Captain E. H. Robinson, winner of a King’s Prize at Bisley, should be of interest to all riflemen The axiom that “ the looker-on sees most of the game ” is true without a doubt, and having for the greater part of this season been, a looker-on and listener to much talk, I have gathered some ideas on the subject of holding which interest me. They may not be particularly new. but may be useful to those who practise rather than preach. Some years ago I unfortunately coined the phrase “ a rock-like hold.” and ever since have had to spend a rrood deal of ink and much breath in trying to correct the wrong impression which the phrase gave. There is no doubt at all that tense muscles and bard-grip-ping fingers—particularly hard-gripping fingers of the forward hand—are all wrong. There used to be a muscle exercise in the army—it may still be used—in holding the rifle on aim in the off-hand position and then cutting away the forward hand and supporting the rifle as steadily as possible with the trigger hand. This exercise is undoubtedly based on the right idea. As Captain J. A. Barlow points out in his admirable “Elements of Rifle Shooting.” almost of the work in holding should be done by the trigger hand and the chin. Putting the matter simply, the bull of the rifle is held between the trigger hand, the chin and the shoulder. The forward hand is simply a rest which prevents the rifle from sagging downwards. To hold properly the thumb must be over the small in opposition to the second. third and little Angers. Any variations. such as pulling with the second finger or placing the thumb alongside the action, results in a weakening of the grip aitd the deficiency must be made up elsewhere in some undesirable way. There is no need at all for anything vice-like in the grip of the fingers of the trigger hand, though the holding here must be firm. The portion of the fore-end which rests on the palm of the forward hand should be reasonably far forward. If the hand is back towards the magasine, the rifle is top-heavy. Any position in close proximity to the backsight or forward of it makes holding easy. Th*i fingers of the forward hand must not grip. They may be allowed, of course, to curl over easily, and. in fact, if they are allowed to flex they will tend to curl over. The sling is a great aid to steadiness; but it must not be the last resort or sole means of securing steadiness. If any attempt is made to use it in this way the result will be—not steadiness, but unsteadiness. The sling obviously exerts a pull. With a rightj handed shooter this pull must be to- ‘ wards the left as well as backwards. ; and has to be counteracted somehow or ! other. What actually happens is that 1 the palm of the forward hand is moved l slightly round so that the sideways ! pressure due to the sling is exerted on [ the forward arm between the wrist and the elbow. Everyone now knows that the proper place for the sling on the arm is right up under the armpit. If it is down by the elbow, it is doing practically no work at all. except pulling against the forward arm. It is only when it ts high up the arm that it is assisting hi the steady back pull. J.J ;.j j.j We have two braces, one between the sling and the forward arm acting against one another, *an<? the other between the chin and the arm of the trigger hancP. These may be regarded as I two forks on which the rifle rests. We next have the important brace between ‘ the backward pressure exerted by the sling and the fingers of the trigger hand, against the forward pressure of the shoulder. How can trouble come from the six counter-acting forces which go to make up these braces? The first likely cause of trouble is

the sling. If it is a llttl* too loose the possibility of trouble lie* only in a rather large group due t* a alight wobble. If it is too tight the main group may be small, but there Will probably be one or two wide »hot% well away from the main group. These are due to the muscles of the forward lum tiring and either giving way altogether at the crucial moment, or else exercising a sucMeu excess of pressure in an endeavour to carry on with the job. The second likely cause of trouble is allowing the trigger hand to get iasy and putting the onus of the backward pull on the sling. The man whose trigger hand is laxy will usually find that he is starting to grip with the fingers of his forward hand. This is a sure sign of trouble, and immediately the fault starts an investigation should be held to discover why. Crossman, who writes largely on shooting in the United States, where he is closely followed by a large number of riflemen, advocates a complete relaxing of all muscles except those involved in the actual business of holding the rifle and pulling the trigger. No attempt should be made to grip the ground with the legs. Whatever other muscles are braced, all those below the breast-bone should certainly be doing no work at all. The great thing in holding would seem to be to reduce to the bare minimum the muscles which actually have to work, and to see that these muscles keep working all the time and in exactly the same manner. The small-bore competitor has long known that the man who changes his position between shots is likely to—and probably will—get a nine. Change of position is not so vital to the service rifle man, because he is shooting into a rather large area. But it is important that the position should not be changed between shots, and the best way of ensuring that the position remains constant is to keep the left elbow firmly fixed in the chosen position. 55 a Jot tl*gs. The Christchurch Defence Club has yet to fire several competitions, but with the highest of four two-range shoots and the highest of two three-range shoots the leaders in the various aggregates are:—Championship-—Ci. Crimp 573, A. Halmshaw 562. D. Murray 559, H. Mason 556, W. Oakley 552. J. Chapman 551, H. Reynolds 55®. H. Harries 547. Two-range aggregate— Ci. Crimp 387, W. Oakley 376. A. Halmshaw 37«. Tj. Murray 371. H. Mason 369. H. Reynolds 367, J. Chapman 365. H. Harries 362. Canterbury Students’ Association Cup—J. Chapman 571, S. F. Nelson 559, R. Neill 554. F. Matthews* 547, J. Davison 344. T>. Harries 541. Watson Challenge Cup—H. Reynolds 213. G. Crimp 212. J. Chapman 211. D. Harries 209. D. Murray 208. E. Truman 208. W. Oakley 207, A. Halmshaw 206, H. Harries 205, F. Hickenbotham 203, R. Neill 203. « !•: >: SYDENHAM CLVS. The Sydenham Defence Rlfla Club completed its sixth short range competition and fired its seventh sho T t range competition at Redcliffs on Saturday. The conditions for the sixth competition were seven shots each at 200, 500 and 600yds. and for the seventh competition, ten shots at 500rds and eleven shots at 600yds. Results:— Sixth Competition.

300 500 600 yd*, yd*, yds. Hep. Tl. W. w. Cockroft SO 32 23 4 95 A. Barker 30 32 31 1 04 H. Barker .... 30 32 20 scr 01 J. McCarthy ..20 32 31 scr 01 F. Hodfte .... 32 20 29 scr J»« A. Webb .... 33 31 21 3 3« P. Morgan ..20 30 27 1 S7 R. Ha v 31 32 23 1 ST S. O. Hay 25 30 30 sor S5 A. Fouldf 24 25 27 8 84 Seventh Competition. 500 600 yd*. yds. Hep. Tl. F. Hodge 45 43 1 *5 W. H. Coekroft ..4 4 46 5 95 J. McCarthy .... 4 4 414 scr 93 V. Tims 39 53 1 93 A. Barker 4 4 4 7 1 92 R. Poulseu .... 45 45 scr 90 S. O Hay 44 45 scr 89 A. Webb 43 42 3 S3 H. Barker 43 43 scr 36 C. Poulsen .... 37 4 4 4 85 R. Hay 42 42 1 *5 P. Morgan .... 41 41 1 83 A. Foulds 36 20 8 73