Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1878 — Long-Range Practice. [ARTICLE]

Long-Range Practice.

The great devastation wrought in the Russian ranks, during many of the actions of the late war, by the long-range fire of the Turkish infantry, has caused the authorities of continental armies to turn their attention to the consideration of the expediency of exercising their troops in distant firing. In Austria a series of experiments have been recently carried on, the results of which prove that long-range musketry fire may inflict immense loss upon the enemy. Wooden targets were set up, representing three guns in action with men serving the pieces. Fifteen hundred yards distant from these dummies a company of infantry, 236 men strong, was drawn up. At a given signal these opened fire, and in three and a half minutes each man had fired ten rounds. On examining the targets it was found that 9 per cent, of the bullets had taken effect. The 108 dummies which represented the guns, the officers and men, had been struck by 189 projectiles—a sufficient number to have put the three field pieces out of action. The firing party was not composed of picked marksmen, but was formed of men taken indiscriminately

from the Fourth regiment of the line. The experiments were continued on subsequent days, the Emperor being present, when equally satisfactory results were obtained, from 8 to 12 per cent, of the bullets fired striking targets at distances from 800 to 1,500 yards.