ohland
08-30-2015, 07:58 PM
American Rifleman, vol 54, No. 19, Aug 17, 1913 pages 371-371
https://books.google.com/books?id=XpMwAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:4_nJVSo-51oC&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBDgKahUKEwjv4KTkgNLHAhVEjQ0KHVIgD54#v =onepage&q&f=false
Shooting Accessories (Part 1 of 2)
BY Edward C. Crossman.
ONCE upon a time I happened to be entangled in a militia prize shooting match at 800 yards. When my turn came I proceeded to stick into the ground the forward half of a pair of telescope holders. Immediately there went up from two up-to-date and highly intelligent militiamen behind me a yell of horror.
“Look at that feller," said the yell, “is he allowed to rest his rifle on that thing while he's a shootin’?"
By the time the highly intelligent lieutenant in charge of that range arrived I had the scope set up.
“Vi/hat are you doing with that scope there?" he snarled. I told him. “You take that thing down and be quick about it," he ordered, "I'll do all the spottin’s that's to be done on this range; think a soldier could pack a blan-kety-blank telescope into battle, huh?” Being of a cantankerous turn of mind I did not take down the scope, but sought an officer who had been longer away from the tall and uncut—-and the scope stayed put.
This is perhaps an exaggerated example of the genus militiaman but it is unhappily a type all too common among those who know nothing of the shooting game—and think they do.
As recently as the California State shoot of 1911 I was politely ordered to cease using my micrometer sight adjuster at the thousand yard stage, because, forsooth, another competitor had been made to give over his own at the 600-yard range, and he in turn had been deprived of its aid because some of the other men didn't have “mikes,” and it would not be fair for the intelligent man to provide himself with such refinements and use them. That is, the level of the bonehead or the uninstructed “rifleman?" was the level above which no man must climb.
It is perhaps this disposition on the part of too many militiamen who form the bulk of our military rifle shooting population that is responsible for the paucity of the shooting refinements that so delight the heart of the English rifleman. In the West, at least, the use of the first essentials to good long range shooting is the exception, not the rule. Some of this is doubtless due to the fact that unless the officers in charge are interested in the game, they actually do not know that such things exist and should be used. I purpose in this screed merely to list the forms of shooting refinements that are available, and those I have found best through a little experience in both club and militia rifle shooting.
Practically all of our shooting accessories came from the English riflemen originally, and the bulk of the articles still come across the salt water in ships.
I know where to get the articles I list as of English make, but I refuse to give the names of the makers as long as such men as P. J. O’Hare, John Hessian, and Conroy are going to the trouble of importing them, paying the duty and freight and adding merely a fair profit. It’s only fair to buy from them when we need the stuff. I list the various articles in about their order of importance to the rifleman and put each under a separate heading in the hopes of making the article of some value as a reference in case of need.
TELESCOPES.
The finest telescopes are the prismatic glasses, such as the Warner & Swasey and the Perplex, giving great power, small bulk and adequate light for the powers offered, an important consideration. These instruments cost from $80 to $100 and are therefore beyond the reach of most individual riflemen. For State or service teams, where the said $100 represents merely a very small nick made in an appropriation, these glasses are to be chosen above all others.
In the direct vision glass, meaning the ordinary terrestrial telescope minus prisms or other frills, power should not run over thirty unless the object glass is 2 ½ inches in diameter or more. In my own case I have been using for the past two years an Aitchison glass made by a London firm, with convertible powers from 25 up to 40, the changes made merely by pulling out the last draw to the various figures marked on it. The object glass is 2 ¼ inches in the clear.
Experience has shown time and again that on dark, overcast days, or on hazy mornings, the 40 power is nearly useless through deficient light, and the target could be seen more plainly with the 30 or 25 power, even though the magnification were less. With a three-inch object glass the 40 power would be all right, provided the field took in all you desired to see - and the 40 power field with the ordinary scope is very much smaller than that of 30 power.
As a general thing a telescope of 30 or 33 power such as the Bardou, is the best for all-around range work. The instruments with convertible powers such as the Lordbury and Aitchison are still better, but at that, the 30 will usually be the chosen power day in and day out.
Be not deceived on the subject of seeing bullet holes with a telescope. It is difficult to see a .30 caliber bullet hole at 300 yards with the forty power glass regardless of theory, and seeing them at still longer ranges is usually a pleasant pipe dream, especially if they strike in the black.
It is poor economy to get a shoddy glass, and it may prove a terrific strain on the eyes with some of the cheap color-fringed affairs. Such glasses as Bardou, Aitchison, Lordbury and Voightlaender are standard and may be relied on.
It is perhaps well to remind you that to read mirage distinctly you should carefully focus the glass on the target, and then by gently turning the focussing section draw it still further out until the paper is just out of focus, and the mirage begins to flicker along the edge of the bull on the leeward side, or to run along the top and bottom edges of the target. By careful adjusting, mirage can be read even on chilly days.
A telescope on the range without some way to hold it convenient to your eyes is as good as no telescope. Get you, therefore, a telescope holder—and select with care. A poor one is an exasperation. It is hard to adjust, does not stay put and usually wabbles so it furnishes a mirage all its own.
The ‘best one I have seen is the Windsor, patented by an Englishman. I own three various sorts and have used four other designs-—mostly poor ones.
If your choice runs in the direction of field glasses, not good for mirage reading, but very handy for general use in picking up spotting discs and watching the general performance on other targets, then remember that the prismatic glass has a long lead over the old type, and that eight power is enough for any man.
There are a number of good ones on the market. In my own experience I would list them about like this:
Goertz Pagor, weight 9 ounces, height 3 ¼ inches, power 8. King-Busch, dimensions about those of the Pagor. Warner & Swasey, larger and heavier, but equally excellent in workmanship. There are a number of other good glasses, and also some very much larger, giving more light for the same power, but it is -well to keep in mind the splendid compactness of the Pagor or the King-Busch that will let the glass slip into a shirt pocket, and yet let you see anything the other fellow can see, save in the first half hour and the last half hour of the day. There is no occasion for paying more than about $40 for as fine a glass as you could desire, although some of them bring around $60.
MICROMETERS.
Here, for a wonder the cheapest article is the best—or at least fully as good as the more expensive ones. I have used the heavy brass or German silver affair of British make; the Stevens-Pope, and the little, "ornery," inexpensive Ideal, costing but $1.50. The Ideal is the one for me at the end of a mike experience running back into Krag days. The British article usually shows lost motion, sometimes as much as a half-degree, equal to five inches at a thousand yards. The Stevens Pope is costly and no better than the Ideal. It has to snap on the sight to make the sight change—can not be left on under the rules, and if it is left on, sometimes removes itself to a distance of about ten feet from the recoil of the rifle.
With the Ideal you make your change on the mike while it is off the rifle and handy to work upon, then you slap it into the space between slide and the bar across the standards, chuck the slide up against it, tighten the set screw and yank off the mike. You don't have to perform any contortion stunts trying to hold a heavy rifle and read a micrometer upon it at the same time.
In using a micrometer of any sort on the New Springfield watch this one point. There is usually lost motion or play between the drift slide, the small plate that has the peep bored in it, and the slide itself. The drift slide has a small pin at the top that slips into a hole in the slide itself. It does not fit tightly, and usually you can loose the thumb screw and make a small change in the slide without budging the drift slide which carries your peep and is the part you really want to move.
With my Stevens-Pope mike I could hitch it to the slide and turn the mike a full degree without budging the drift slide. That is, I had actually made no change in elevation although the mike said I had.
Therefore, to get around this, using the Ideal micrometer, always make the change in the same manner, taking out the lost motion the same every time. In my case I set the mike, cast loose the slide, put in the mike, and then always bring the slide up from below against the mike again. Try this, and you'll see what is meant.
Also in setting your micrometer for your first shot be careful that it is set correctly. Read it twice, and then check the position of the sight slide by the reading in yards. I have seen at least a score of misses from mis-set micrometers, fellows setting to 45 instead of 75, etc. It is carelessness, but seemingly very common carelessness. It is well to note that the Ideal micrometer cuts half in two with its sleeve the number indicating tens of degrees. For instance, set at 40, the sleeve cuts half of the four off. Don't set it this way the first time, and then fire on that range the next time with the “4" fully in sight. Your mike setting is then but 35, not 40, and your shot—at 500 yards—strikes two feet low or into a very low three. The same sort of mistake at 1,000 puts the victim off the target, and he may or may not find the trouble before his first record shot.
The owner of the tiny Ideal mike will do well to tie to it around the base at the figure “10," a thin, soft leather thong, a foot long or so. This he can tie into a loop to slip over his wrist, but its chief value is to keep the midget from crawling off and losing itself. Even in sand or grass some part of the thong sticks up, and it goes far in stopping the wandering habit of the small piece of steel.
https://books.google.com/books?id=XpMwAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:4_nJVSo-51oC&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBDgKahUKEwjv4KTkgNLHAhVEjQ0KHVIgD54#v =onepage&q&f=false
Shooting Accessories (Part 1 of 2)
BY Edward C. Crossman.
ONCE upon a time I happened to be entangled in a militia prize shooting match at 800 yards. When my turn came I proceeded to stick into the ground the forward half of a pair of telescope holders. Immediately there went up from two up-to-date and highly intelligent militiamen behind me a yell of horror.
“Look at that feller," said the yell, “is he allowed to rest his rifle on that thing while he's a shootin’?"
By the time the highly intelligent lieutenant in charge of that range arrived I had the scope set up.
“Vi/hat are you doing with that scope there?" he snarled. I told him. “You take that thing down and be quick about it," he ordered, "I'll do all the spottin’s that's to be done on this range; think a soldier could pack a blan-kety-blank telescope into battle, huh?” Being of a cantankerous turn of mind I did not take down the scope, but sought an officer who had been longer away from the tall and uncut—-and the scope stayed put.
This is perhaps an exaggerated example of the genus militiaman but it is unhappily a type all too common among those who know nothing of the shooting game—and think they do.
As recently as the California State shoot of 1911 I was politely ordered to cease using my micrometer sight adjuster at the thousand yard stage, because, forsooth, another competitor had been made to give over his own at the 600-yard range, and he in turn had been deprived of its aid because some of the other men didn't have “mikes,” and it would not be fair for the intelligent man to provide himself with such refinements and use them. That is, the level of the bonehead or the uninstructed “rifleman?" was the level above which no man must climb.
It is perhaps this disposition on the part of too many militiamen who form the bulk of our military rifle shooting population that is responsible for the paucity of the shooting refinements that so delight the heart of the English rifleman. In the West, at least, the use of the first essentials to good long range shooting is the exception, not the rule. Some of this is doubtless due to the fact that unless the officers in charge are interested in the game, they actually do not know that such things exist and should be used. I purpose in this screed merely to list the forms of shooting refinements that are available, and those I have found best through a little experience in both club and militia rifle shooting.
Practically all of our shooting accessories came from the English riflemen originally, and the bulk of the articles still come across the salt water in ships.
I know where to get the articles I list as of English make, but I refuse to give the names of the makers as long as such men as P. J. O’Hare, John Hessian, and Conroy are going to the trouble of importing them, paying the duty and freight and adding merely a fair profit. It’s only fair to buy from them when we need the stuff. I list the various articles in about their order of importance to the rifleman and put each under a separate heading in the hopes of making the article of some value as a reference in case of need.
TELESCOPES.
The finest telescopes are the prismatic glasses, such as the Warner & Swasey and the Perplex, giving great power, small bulk and adequate light for the powers offered, an important consideration. These instruments cost from $80 to $100 and are therefore beyond the reach of most individual riflemen. For State or service teams, where the said $100 represents merely a very small nick made in an appropriation, these glasses are to be chosen above all others.
In the direct vision glass, meaning the ordinary terrestrial telescope minus prisms or other frills, power should not run over thirty unless the object glass is 2 ½ inches in diameter or more. In my own case I have been using for the past two years an Aitchison glass made by a London firm, with convertible powers from 25 up to 40, the changes made merely by pulling out the last draw to the various figures marked on it. The object glass is 2 ¼ inches in the clear.
Experience has shown time and again that on dark, overcast days, or on hazy mornings, the 40 power is nearly useless through deficient light, and the target could be seen more plainly with the 30 or 25 power, even though the magnification were less. With a three-inch object glass the 40 power would be all right, provided the field took in all you desired to see - and the 40 power field with the ordinary scope is very much smaller than that of 30 power.
As a general thing a telescope of 30 or 33 power such as the Bardou, is the best for all-around range work. The instruments with convertible powers such as the Lordbury and Aitchison are still better, but at that, the 30 will usually be the chosen power day in and day out.
Be not deceived on the subject of seeing bullet holes with a telescope. It is difficult to see a .30 caliber bullet hole at 300 yards with the forty power glass regardless of theory, and seeing them at still longer ranges is usually a pleasant pipe dream, especially if they strike in the black.
It is poor economy to get a shoddy glass, and it may prove a terrific strain on the eyes with some of the cheap color-fringed affairs. Such glasses as Bardou, Aitchison, Lordbury and Voightlaender are standard and may be relied on.
It is perhaps well to remind you that to read mirage distinctly you should carefully focus the glass on the target, and then by gently turning the focussing section draw it still further out until the paper is just out of focus, and the mirage begins to flicker along the edge of the bull on the leeward side, or to run along the top and bottom edges of the target. By careful adjusting, mirage can be read even on chilly days.
A telescope on the range without some way to hold it convenient to your eyes is as good as no telescope. Get you, therefore, a telescope holder—and select with care. A poor one is an exasperation. It is hard to adjust, does not stay put and usually wabbles so it furnishes a mirage all its own.
The ‘best one I have seen is the Windsor, patented by an Englishman. I own three various sorts and have used four other designs-—mostly poor ones.
If your choice runs in the direction of field glasses, not good for mirage reading, but very handy for general use in picking up spotting discs and watching the general performance on other targets, then remember that the prismatic glass has a long lead over the old type, and that eight power is enough for any man.
There are a number of good ones on the market. In my own experience I would list them about like this:
Goertz Pagor, weight 9 ounces, height 3 ¼ inches, power 8. King-Busch, dimensions about those of the Pagor. Warner & Swasey, larger and heavier, but equally excellent in workmanship. There are a number of other good glasses, and also some very much larger, giving more light for the same power, but it is -well to keep in mind the splendid compactness of the Pagor or the King-Busch that will let the glass slip into a shirt pocket, and yet let you see anything the other fellow can see, save in the first half hour and the last half hour of the day. There is no occasion for paying more than about $40 for as fine a glass as you could desire, although some of them bring around $60.
MICROMETERS.
Here, for a wonder the cheapest article is the best—or at least fully as good as the more expensive ones. I have used the heavy brass or German silver affair of British make; the Stevens-Pope, and the little, "ornery," inexpensive Ideal, costing but $1.50. The Ideal is the one for me at the end of a mike experience running back into Krag days. The British article usually shows lost motion, sometimes as much as a half-degree, equal to five inches at a thousand yards. The Stevens Pope is costly and no better than the Ideal. It has to snap on the sight to make the sight change—can not be left on under the rules, and if it is left on, sometimes removes itself to a distance of about ten feet from the recoil of the rifle.
With the Ideal you make your change on the mike while it is off the rifle and handy to work upon, then you slap it into the space between slide and the bar across the standards, chuck the slide up against it, tighten the set screw and yank off the mike. You don't have to perform any contortion stunts trying to hold a heavy rifle and read a micrometer upon it at the same time.
In using a micrometer of any sort on the New Springfield watch this one point. There is usually lost motion or play between the drift slide, the small plate that has the peep bored in it, and the slide itself. The drift slide has a small pin at the top that slips into a hole in the slide itself. It does not fit tightly, and usually you can loose the thumb screw and make a small change in the slide without budging the drift slide which carries your peep and is the part you really want to move.
With my Stevens-Pope mike I could hitch it to the slide and turn the mike a full degree without budging the drift slide. That is, I had actually made no change in elevation although the mike said I had.
Therefore, to get around this, using the Ideal micrometer, always make the change in the same manner, taking out the lost motion the same every time. In my case I set the mike, cast loose the slide, put in the mike, and then always bring the slide up from below against the mike again. Try this, and you'll see what is meant.
Also in setting your micrometer for your first shot be careful that it is set correctly. Read it twice, and then check the position of the sight slide by the reading in yards. I have seen at least a score of misses from mis-set micrometers, fellows setting to 45 instead of 75, etc. It is carelessness, but seemingly very common carelessness. It is well to note that the Ideal micrometer cuts half in two with its sleeve the number indicating tens of degrees. For instance, set at 40, the sleeve cuts half of the four off. Don't set it this way the first time, and then fire on that range the next time with the “4" fully in sight. Your mike setting is then but 35, not 40, and your shot—at 500 yards—strikes two feet low or into a very low three. The same sort of mistake at 1,000 puts the victim off the target, and he may or may not find the trouble before his first record shot.
The owner of the tiny Ideal mike will do well to tie to it around the base at the figure “10," a thin, soft leather thong, a foot long or so. This he can tie into a loop to slip over his wrist, but its chief value is to keep the midget from crawling off and losing itself. Even in sand or grass some part of the thong sticks up, and it goes far in stopping the wandering habit of the small piece of steel.