British NRA Bisley meeting 1908

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From an old book circa 1922 I dug out of my collection of the bygone era considering the distances and the mode of travel in those days it is a piece of Aussie history I could not resist to buy.

Hope the forum enjoy the few pics.

Why do Austrians need a country specific shooting manual?

I shall ask around to see if there is any mileage in this approach. I'm thinking of "Rifle Shooting in Surrey for residents of Hampshire" for example. I'd buy a copy. :D

That's because we have millions of large rats that hop around and are really hard to hit so we need a country specific shooting creed, plus hampsters do not jump do they!!! :madsmile:

Great find that Garandrew. What's on most of the pages?

It's a list of the matches, match rules, prizes, timetabling, firearm specifications and general rules of shooting along with a map of the camp. They published it every year, (and still do).
The NRA offices has a large photo of the Australian team for the 1920 Empire Match, still with the Long rifle.

Rifle shooting in Australia was represented at the time as very much an asset to national defence (probably to avoid the expense of a permanent force) and some generous concessions were made to rifle clubs.

1908, just when the Ross rifle arrived on the scene. Anything about them in the book?

In response to MK VII I can only speak from our clubs point of view and we share a military range owned by the Commonwealth with another rifle club and have seen the Govt close allot of ranges across our land some for the urban sprawl others due to economic reason. When I look back the rifle has been part of our history forever and I seen allot the old clubs go by the wayside over the last 20 - 25 years.
The old members fade away and the young ones find the full bore discipline rather tedious but like the F class - I gravitated to F class after 36 years of full bore so for me I had a good grounding to move across basically due to staring into the sun off and on over a period of 26 years as a crane operator kinda had a detrimental affect on the eyes .

The benefits of F class are well known but the drawback is you can see it all happening and are constantly adjusting unless it is all constant conditions and that's a rarity a thing you are spared with peep sights, I hope to see a resurgence in club membership, we have a strong following in Field and Military but full bore is on the decline and as stated the ol' contemptible's just simply fade away.

The Ross was banned from competition due to the sight fitted not conforming to the current rules, I think it was rescinded in 1912.

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Originally Posted by muffett.2008

The Ross was banned from competition due to the sight fitted not conforming to the current rules, I think it was rescinded in 1912.

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The MkII Ross with the light barrel was used at Bisely in 1906 and 1907.

In 1908 the .280 rifle swept up most of the Match Rifle prizes. In 1909 and 1910 the Ely-made .280 ammo curiously failed to perform as it had in 1908, so Ross began to make his own.

1909 the heavy barreled MkII** was used for the first time and won six major cups and thirty five medals and prizes. The NRA ruled that Rosses could only be used by Canadians in future.

1910, two major cups and 2nd place in the King's Prize match for the MkII**.

1911, King's Prize and Prince of Wales' Prize with MkII**. The .280 Match using Ross ammo won the Match Rifle Championship and "a record 13 prizes".

1912, "Ross rifles won 50 of the 94 prizes". George Mortimer made new world record of 73 out of 75 at 1200 yards. Rosses won eight of the 13 top competitions.

1913, Kings Prize with MkII**. .280 Ross ammo used to win the top three places in every Match Rifle competition. Ross announces sale of his .280 ammo will be restricted in future to those using Ross rifles. NRA of GB announces Ross .280 match is banned due to being a hollow point bullet banned by the Hague Convention.

Not a bad start for an upstart.

No disputing it's Match rifle record,however it was banned from service rifle matches as the aperture sight interfered with the loading of the rifle,in contravention of the rules, and also interfered with the service battle sights.
The Canadians were attempting to get the rules changed, but were meeting a fair bit of opposition from the Military,this seems to have been an on again off again fight until 1914.
Attachment 49272 1912
Attachment 49273 1912
Attachment 49274 1914

Woops, doubled up on a pic.
It seems this nonsense was still in play in 1919.
Attachment 49308 interim approval 1912
Attachment 49309 1919
Attachment 49310match conditions 1914

Attachment 49311 1912 reasons
Attachment 493121914 resentment

So, if I'm reading through the pictured news clippings correctly, the Ross was thought at least by the Canadians, as was said in the 1914 articles, to be vastly superior to the Lee-Enfield. The Kiwis as well (and possibly the Australian team*) had embraced it as a target rifle at least. The objection was that it wasn't a "service rifle" - the War Office meaning was that it wasn't the British Army service rifle while the real reason was that the aperture sight offered an unfair advantage.

*This based upon the 1914 article (last above) stating the Australian team stating that the rifle clubs were Australia's "second line of defence". This also leaves one wondering if the Ross was in club use in Australia before 1914.

Actually the Kiwi's started the trouble, their team borrowed the Ross and cleaned up, there's a newspaper clipping laying the blame at their feet.
Only the Canadians thought the Ross was the bees Knees, the Aussies were still using the Long Lee variation, the comment in reference to Rifle Clubs was because the MOD decision was directed at all aperture sights that were not as issued.
This problem was finally resolved by the changing of the NRA rules to create a seperate target/match segment and still allow service rifle to co-exist.
The rule change of 1909 allowing aperture sights was to the effect that the use of these sights did not interfere with the normal functions of the battle rifle, most of them being quick attach/detach to the volley sight mount, whereas the Ross had a complete fixed bracket across the bridge, limiting reloading and interfering with the service sight.
The Canadians were trying to compete in rapids and snaps with no ability to reload as per the requirements, the shots on the target may be good, but not at the expense of only half on target. The complaints and protests finally led to the decision to disallow it's use in service rifle matches until a better sight system was fitted.