OCR Text |
Show THE CITIZEN 5 iiiiiiaiiiiii'BI'BIIBIIIIIIBI,BI,aiiai,ailBI,B,IBIia,,BI,BIIBMIIIia,llilllllllll,lllllllllllllllailll,ll,lllll,IIIIIIIBIIBI,aillllll,llll,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMB,iailBliaillliailBIIBIIBIIalllinBliailllMII,ll''a''a''a''""a"a"""""a"i"""""i""''i''i''iii"iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiB Ijlllllllll11 Modern Riflemen Looks Back to Caveman Who Conquered a Bear with Shower of Clods GUN ' ' iiiiiiiiiii,,iilll,,BI,IIIBIIBIIIIIIIIBIIlll,,aiiaiiaillllBIIIIII,IBIIIIIIIIBIIIIBIIIIIIlllIIlllllllillllllliailBIIIIIIIIBliaillllll,lllllll,lllllllll,II,ll,llllllllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIBIII,lll1IBIIBIIIIIIIIB1,IIIB,IIIIIIIBIIBIIIIIIIIBIiaillllllllllBIIIIIBIIIIIBIiailBIIBIiaillIBIiailai,BIIIIBill,BtlBt,BiK OE fall the of Adam, man, has been to invent a better means iwing a missile, than the one man by his neighbor. ugh necessity, en-Ti- ng Pre-histor- ic his own resources because in tasting the e weakness of Eve upon found tst important law; and the only self-preservat- apple, ion abiding citizen the one who got of a scrape with a whole skin, their relatively puny Md strength, fighting with tooth nat-H- y daw like the other animals, placed him at a great disad-gof fccause e. giant club was somewhat but still not efficient enough e it still brought the wielder A . with-rang- of the enemys counter- - k. Meets a Bear. ne day, so the story goes, a shag-cav- e dweller, untroubled by math-itics or the depths of theoretical :hanics, while walking in the for-foun- d himself confronted by a be traced by following the develop- merit of arms and ammunition. To fol- low this development in its various is another complete story, and will not be taken up here. Let it suf-- , to say, therefore, that from this instance defensive arms slowly pro- gressed through the successive stages in all of its varia- of the sling-shtions to the bow and arrow which was undoubtedly the greatest stride before the invention of gun powder. With the advent of the bow and arrow the tables were turned, and man, previously the hunted, now became the hunter, preying upon all sizes and of beasts without discrimina- tion. Man had become the Lord of creation. The invention of an explosive chem- ical mixture, although often accredit- ed to the Chinese, from the standpoint of the rifleman was accidentally dis- covered by Roger T. Bacon, a scientific monk of the early thirteenth century. Bacon, while working in his monastery laboratory, endeavoring to find the best inflamable chemical mix- ture, startled himself and his brother monks by a violent explosion, while he was grinding a comcharcoal and bination of sulphur. Gunpowder had been invented, a new chapter had been written in the history of marksmanship which was to have more effect upon the history of mankind and his than any single discovery before or since that time. As is commonly known, for the improvement has been mainly within the last generation, the firearms developed from a muzzle loading awkward shooting tube with a maximum range of a very few hundred feet, to the modern breech loading rifle, capable of hurling a missile with extreme accuracy up to 2,000 yards, and having a maximum range of from three to five ot oc-curi- salt-pete- r, inter-relationshi- jous bear looking for a repast. With off, escape was: fight he must. The question antly arose as to whether he ld bite, scratch or kick, or should Wrench a branch from a nearby and use it for a club. This would delay his execution so without fy iking he seized up a huge stone burled it with all his might at yawning death before him. Clod clod followed the first one, bear, stormed off his guard, Jed to one side, providing an aisle f retreat cut im-Jtib- le, un-$t- he fcape. e man had saved his life, but more, he had unconscious-vente- d arms and ammunition. In Jwcrds of the story, he needed to a harder blow U than the blow of at a greater distance than egth of his arm, and his brain bown him how to do it. Arms Progress. TJ at day until this the Mankind and civilization can d done 18 ng in the state have been among the leading shooting units in the nation, Year after year civilian teams presenting the Beehive State have re-stag- es battled with the other state and ser-fivice teams at the national matches, ce and each year although not winners, k the local artists have placed nearer the top. In the indoor, small bore telegraphic contests, however, much more success has come their way. In 1925 for instance the team representing the Salt Lake Rifle and Revolver Club, under the efficient coaching of H. A. Weymouth, dean of rifle shooting in the state and presi-typdent of the state association, startled the world of marksmen by winning fire-stic- es the coveted national indoor champion- ship from a field of several hundred entries. East High Team. The team at the East High School the year previous under Sargeant John Van Nort, showed the caliber of marksmanship the native sons were in winning j10?018 even the Ninth Corps area. more praise worthy since this area included every high school in the intermountain and Pacific coast states. fif p As this accuracy and range of the modern rifles became somewhat uni- form and the quantity of game rela- - tively scarce, the gun lovers turned their shooting activity during peace times to competition in target practice. Few people who have not undertaken the task, can realize the skill and the training necessary to consistently direct a projectile into a bulls eye at 1,000 yards, especially when every change of wind, temperature, light, and humidity affects the flight of the bullet and must be anticipated. to Nor is it easy for the realize the sense of satisfaction, the thrill, the shooter feels in successfully accomplishing this feat in the heat of competition. Since the inception of target shootclubs ing the Utah civilian teams and as well as those at Fort Douglas and the various high schools and colleges on-look- er direct-descendan- ts -- . of this great country should be familiar with arms and ammunition is as essential to the countrys defense as an army or navy. Good shots cannot be made over night, but only through years and years of close contact with miles. Target Practice. hardly discern in the distance; are the of the old rock throwers, just as their modern shooters have for their distant ancestors, the half clad cavemen. Speeding Missiles. If this mental picture is too much for the imagination, visualize the as- tonishment Abe and his followers would display if invited and able to attend one of the many modern tur- key shoots conducted by the civilian and soldier clubs of the state. Hearing the crack of a trusty Springfield rifle, sending a small by murderous projectile, propelled 2700 feet a second by a charge of T. N. T. like powder, exerting a pressure of 60,000 pounds per square inch, would be too much for the ancient marksman. They would probably think that the rath of Thor, the thunder god, was descending upon them. Personally it is very questionable whether they would stay to compete, or even to get their share of the big feast that always accompanies the shoots. Rifle shooting today is no longer a hit and miss proposition, nor is it merely essential to aim the gun and pull the trigger. The modem marksman is a scientific shooter, and uses science in every sense of the word. Besides getting the infinite pleasure of shooting their rifles, a supreme satisfaction that only a true lover of sports can feel, the local teams are doing their bit to make America a nation of riflemen. That the populace Iamgine, if you can, these famed shooters proceeding to the big spring shoot at Ft Douglas, clothed with a bear skin, and armed with a mighty sling-sho- t. How would guns and shooters that can shoot. This fact, together with the well known axiom that the nations standing army in time of peace can only at best be a small nucleous of the gigantic force needed during war times, leads us to assert that the modem shooter, is surely combining business with it look to see them pace of 1,000 yards, instead of the 30 as the old shooters did, and hurl a cobble the size of both fists at a bulls eye scarcely visible in distance ? Try and picture the re- nown Weymouth and Van Nort at- tired in the garb of Abe, the cave man, directing the shots of their pro- teges in the big state shoot this com- ing June, shooting in competition with clansmen of the remote comers of state who had been on the way for moons to attend the big accuracy confab. Strange, and yet the arms of today with their precision, high pressure, groved barrels, some of them equipped with a ten power telescope to bring nearer what the naked eye can have often thought of having a repertoire company and giving sever-th- e al plays in each city, George Arliss told an interviewer in Buffalo while he was acting in Winthrop Ames production of The Merchant of Venice in that city recently, but the cost of e making so many productions, the aries necessary for so large an organ-th- e ization of players and the transpor-tw- o tation expenses make the plan almost j sal-th- prohibitive. Mussolini now has abolished every chamber of commerce in Italy. speakToo many other after-dinners ? Brooklyn Times. er |