10 THE IRISH VOLUNTEER w mna*

chanical aid ; and against the use of the aperture sight on any rifle. The aperture Lee-Enfield and Open Versus The fixture can be attached to the Lee-Enfield, tba Mauser, or almost any modern rifle, but thn military authorities in Great Bri­ Lee-Metfield Rifles tain believe that its use is detrimental to Aperture Sights. rifle-shooting, and have ruled accordingly. Targets Only a Start. The Service arm of Groat Britain. The Lee-1 let ford was approved for the use of The competitions at Bisley and other thn Service at the end of 1889. At that time there was no smokeless powder earl, centres are, after all, but tests of progress ridge ava'foble for it, and it was, to a How World's Best Marksmen Are Made. in the art of shooting; not, as would seem certain extent, a compromise. A new to He assumed by some, as the final ob­ pattern known as the Mark I was approved at the end of 1891 and other modifica­ ject of rifle practice. It is known from tions and improvements were rondo In 1899 actual experience in countries where game end in 18915. In 18fjo the so-called En­ shooting is tlie common sport, that target field rifling was substituted for the Met. ford rifling. This rifle was known as the “ Peep No Test ” practice is but the in tis 1 stage of rifle Ijce-Metford Mark I. The Lee Enfiold shooting. It is invariably found that ex­ Mark 1. tn wheih the cleaning rod teas done away with, was issued in 1809. The cellent target shots, oven those who have short r fie was issued in 1908. It is fit­ been trained with the open sight, are ted with a means of charging a, magazine hopelessly incompetent when they first at­ from n clip, and has various mod'ficR- tions designed to make it very practicable Value of Training Open Sights Proved in South tempt to shoot animals. It will thus be as a evvfoe wrap on. The sights ere a seen that the important thing in rifle­ considerable improvement on those of the African W ar. Big Game Hunters uphold shooting :s the development of the natu­ long patterns. The fores ght is a blade protected by horns or wings, and the Open Sights. ral powers, and not the cultivation of an backsight allows of vertical and lateral intimate acquaintance with a complex me*1 adjustments, the latter by means of a chanical contrivance. sejew. The whole of the barrel is covered in wit ha wooden -.held to protect the If, therefore, lion. Sam Hughes has the hand from contact with the hot barrel, interests of the Canadian Militia at hearts Mark [short rifle has a Y notch on the The controversy raging around the ac­ backsight and a barleycorn fores'glit. The he would db well to adopt a less bell g- tion of the British War Office in abolish­ der him incompetent, and h s training, shorl rifle has recently been adopted to tent att tilde towards the W ;i Office, and the pointed Mark VII. cartridge. The ing the aperture s’ght in Bisley ctwnpeti. without his mechanic's! aid, goes for noth­ ask himself whether, after all, something Territorial Service rifle is the ordinary lions is one that cannot be decided by a ing, or neat to noth'ng. To train a man long l.ee-Enfield pattern, Mark I, con­ like reason does not govern their action. tmmtnary “yes'1 or “ no.” Looking at the from the very beginning o£ h i shooting verted by the 'ntroduction of a charger The new regulations affect every part guide bridge to allow of rapid folding matter from art unbiassed standpoint, career with the aperture sight is about as ot the British Empire, and yet it is as, from Clips. A deeper magazine affording howover, the step the aulb'oriliea have wise as to train a swimmer by meins of iccommodfttfoil for tea cartridges, a new -turned that the suppress'nn of the Cana­ backsight leaf nnd bed and si de, allow­ taken would seem to be the result of a a cork bell and never allow hm into the dian sight Glone was the motive which ing for lateral adjustment by means of a desire to improve r fie shooting as a whole, water without it. Neither rifleman ncr prompted the War Office to abolish the screw, and a blade fortsight wiih a horn to produce in the British Empire a body swimmer would display much ability or wing protector. All Service patter'lls without h s mechtmcal help. The War aperture sight at the ch e f competition of the Lee-Enfield. Lee-Metford, Territo. of men second to none in the world as rial and short rifle are sanctioned by the Office nre basing their art on On the with n the Empire. riflemen! end not to possess a few experts T A. S. N.li.A. foe use n Service rifle competi­ who can joggle wi.h a rifle before a tar­ ground thil no artificial ^ids must He used tions at Bisley (1913). The departures if the faculties of mind and eye brought - from the strict pattern cf the rifle used get in tile yearly EDip re trials. wh ch. aro allowed are ns follows—The Thn aperture sight U t comparatively nto play Ln shooting arc to be developed. Met ford pattern cocking piece may be need re.-en. dev'ce and an • djunet to rather A more spartan form Df training is and The Route March w” h an Enfield •bartel, the lihfield cock- ul'-v y ; will he necessary. fog piece w'th safety locking bolt on a thin a component part of any rifle; a Mctford barrel, and the short lead as made piece of flimsy mechanism which, from its for the short rifle on any puteri) barrel. What the Boers Did. verir structure, unit -he del cate nature of its adjustment, could not possibly sUmd Take, for instance, the case of the Beers He swung along the muddy ro~d rough usage. Extreme care must he ex- in South Africa. They are the finest shots With head erect and step ela.e, rrri-.ed in its adjustment, and .be slightest In the world, and th er success, which was And in Iiits eager eyes there glowed 3n sb fll>arobing twist of a screw will throw a marksman so strikingly illustrated in the late war, The fires that tell of holy hate. Song. far away irom hi.; object, especially when was due to no such device on their rifles Of hate that burns and hate [hat sears, shooting to a d stance of several hundred as an aperture sight. They are trained And purges from the soul the sin yards. Could any reasonab'e man, there­ to shoot; an extra sense, as it were, is Of having e’er in weary years fore, say that it would prove as useful in thus brought into bang, and the result WORDS-: “L1SMOR,” Earn dcub'ed Ireland's cause could win. active service is the less easily damaged is th it they can take tip any rifle with MUSIC: JO SEPH M. CROFTS. open sight? Is it likely that 3 soldier, in an open sight and shoot equally well with Around h'm by the same green fields the m dst of the tumult and turmoil of it. That they are pre-eminent -s a nat on Thai saw in hitter days gone by— Hark! thro’ the land a trumpet ring;, battle, cot)Id or would fiddle with a mul­ In might it pealeth forth. with -he rifle is a fact beyond dispute, and How, borne home on bloody shields. Its echoes thunder o’er the South, tip le‘ty of ecrews and a Vernier scale yet the aperture sight is a thing unknown Our fathers showed the way to die. They sweep alrflig the North; every time his objective increased or de autonget them. Again, consider the case And flashing eyes ore bright with joy, A land by foreign foes -assailed, Brave hearts' are beating h’gh, ' creased its di-tance from h m or he from of profess on tl hunters of- big game. Their A land by bigot bate maligned: ' For Freedom's breath is in the air— it? Is it an object to be --irnrd at that equals as marksmen c'-nnot. of coune, be Tltc dawn, the dawn is nigh! Was theirs to free—and if they faded, e ' wo should have soldiers whose accuracy found. Not only ibrfr livelihood hut their They left a noble name bfh nd. The Nation's voice rings over all. in shooting depended on the careful ad. very lives depend on accuracy, but just From Cork to Derry’s shore. juStmenf of their rifle sights and not on e-s important as accuracy, is speed in A name that down the fudging years Our God, our land, Vhatc’er befall, the r own shooting abiFty ? Hon- Sam sighting when their rifles are In "action. Still bears the message to each soul, March on ' for evermore ! Hughes say "the aperture sight is the Vet neither in Africa nor in India, the That, hungering, waits the biltle spears Oh 1 brothers, thro* long, bitter years only sight for any efficiency on active scr- homes of big game hunters, b the aper Which yet shall levy freedom’s toll. Our fathers stood at bay. riw .'' Will the M ttistrr of Mil'ita give They faced the prison-cell ynd swOTd—- lure s'ght known in the field. Its esc has Arc we leas true to-day? Mayhap not yours, young Volunteer, an instance when it has shown its effi­ been declared by all hunters to be not N o! God mid country be your cry— ciency on active serv er? only impracticable but even attended with To bleed, yet yours to set a line On! on! to Freedom's goal I That leads to where, serene and clear. Dash back the tear for those who fell, great danger, because of the impossibil ty The r cause take to your soul. Advantages of Respective Sights. of aligning bark and fore sights with the We see ,the Star of Freedom shine. speed that ran be attuned with the open And F.mpires fall but truth lives on, No one can deny that under the con- Tcll’ng to all who wait the morn God knows H i own tiro- best, sight. ' The night of cent urea is o’er. Another Moses yet shall lead dlfon; governing range shooting the aper. This Israel of-the West; tit:e fixture enables any rifleman to And If prejudice Ire thrown ns'dc it will be­ From out the travailed Past reborn. Lift up your hearts, for Freedom’s Sun the butt's eye Oftener than he could with come apparent to anyone that the action Our Mother htils 'he dawn once more.’ Shi ill rise in majesty, And Erin shine bright as of old— the open sight. But herein lies one of Its of the War Office is not “atuocr-rtically V. KEIfOE. Triumphant, glorious, free! greatest defects as an aid to the produc­ ruling” against the aperture s'ght cf the " LISMOR tion of a marksman. The powers which Canadian Ross r'fie any more thin against tS S ijS " must be dwelt: ped in a man before he can the aperture sight of any cubes 1 iffe The Gun Shy—A tnan is gun sby who Hand—The grip, hold, or small of the become proficient with the open sight arc step w s taken in the internets of the prin­ flinches, shut* his eye, or makes some in­ r'fle. That art of the woodwork of the not called into act on with the aperture. ciples employed in the mak-ng of good voluntary movement tit anticipation of the s'oek gripped by the right bind. A pis­ shook of the recce 1 of the rifle. The best He relies on an artificial aid, which, if shots, vit., the development of the natu­ tol hand is a prolongation of the lower remedy for gun shyness is constant prac­ part of the small of the stock in the form removed at a moment's notice, will Ten­ ral powers, independent of excess re me- tice. of a pistol butt.