Originally Posted by
Don McDowell
Interesting that when the NY Rifle Club answered the challenge from the Irish and British Rifle teams, there was no shooters on the east coast that had much of any experience in long range shooting. They and the NRA came west and tried their best to recruit shooters from the Hide trade, not a one of them was interested and stayed on the plains until they either went broke or quit to go on to do something else.
Remington and Sharps pooled together, built special rifles and ammunition and started outfitting and training shooters for the match. The teams from across the Atlantic showed up with their muzzleloaders, some took the US made rifles home with them that time, and by the end of the "Creedmoor" era very few were shooting muzzle loaders, and gun builders such as Rigby were franticly trying to replicate the rifles of the American team that were so handily winning the matches.
In todays world of shooting it's amazing how few shooters are taught to shoot with irons, and now there's a multimillion dollar industry built around a shooting venue, where actual field positions are not used, and the rifles are equipped with telescopic sights that do about 90% of the work for the shooter. When is the last time one of the "hunters" on the cable infomercial channels actually shot a game animal with a hand carried adjustable tripod, instead of from the sitting, kneeling or prone postition, or using a field position?
A lot of myth's just seem to live on and on and on.....