JuxE, 1918. 249 RAPID FIRE. T H E C H E F - D ' C E U V R E O F T H E B R I T I S H S O L D I E R . (Continued.) M I N I A T U R E R I F L E R A N G E P R A C T I C E S . B y " C a r t o n . " PREVIOUS to the adoption of the Hiscock-Parker magazine for the .22 calibre R.F. rifle by the War Offlce, all rapid lire practices carried out on military miniature rifle ranges were very unsatis factory, and as each round of ammunition was required to be " single loaded," the practices could not by any stretch of imagination be said to resemble a modilied form of rapid fire exercises similar to the Classification Practices of the General Musketry Course. The introduction of the Hiscock-Parker magazine, however, provided the musketry instructor with an opportunity of ascertaining the progress of his recruits with regard to bolt action with the butt of the rifle in the shoulder, and quick re-alignment of. sights after firing, which are, unquestionably, two potential factors to be taken into consideration in the early stages of elementary training, but which unfortunately only gave us a limited series of five rounds at each practice, when the magazine had either to be re-charged by the particular method advised, or replaced by another magazine con taining five rounds, by which the magazine, although providing an excellent device for those important features mentioned, does not afford a means of exercising that rapid and clean re-charging so essential in a burst of rapid fire. I understand that the adopted magazine was originated by Armourer Sergeant-Major Hiscock, of Hythe, which I 0 i ■ J&oZf htad^ tfiffViig 7iott-neitn.ff "T'Az .S'/iccciedV'■/*<» i^e Ccct cm-cixj. in pre-war times was the hub of musketry training, and was later made practical by the addition of a loading device invented by Mr. A-. E. Parker, of the well-known firm of rifle experts. The magazine can be readily fitted to any .22 calibre Lee-Enfield rifle, the only alteration being that the underside edge of the bolt face should be rounded, so that it may depress and travel over the body portion of the magazine in the action of re-loading the rifle (see diagram). All Government pattern .22 calibre rifles are issued with the cut-off removed, but in privately owned weapons of the converted pattern this superfluous portion of the body group often remains, although a source of trouble to the firer, so a further small alteration will be found necessary by treating this in a similar manner . The magazine is substantially constructed, and if carefully oiled with thin oil and kept free from grit, will not get out of order no matter how extensively it may be employed, in fact I can with confidence assert that a very smooth action is acquired after the magazine has been in constant use on military ranges for three or four months. I may mention that an instructor or a qualified assistant should charge and re-charge the magazine when necessary, exercising a certain amount of care, and also, that a correct bolt action is essential so that jamming may be avoided, (i.e., the bolt should be drawn back to its full extent when reloading). It is not necessary to remove the magazine from the rifle to re-charge with five rounds because this may be effectually accomplished wdth a little practice as follows : Turn the handle " D " upw^ards to the left, say the 9 o'clock position, by which movement the auxiliary platform " C '' is depressed. Now lean the rifle over to the left with the muzzle pointing slightly downwards, then place the five cartridges in the slot " E," resting the rim end of each round on the back of the slot with the fore-finger on the tip of the bullet, so that when the cartridge is released it will drop in horizontally. Turn the handle " D " down wards to the 6 o'clock position to allow the platform to rise. It is by no means difficult to strip or assemble the magazine, all one has to do is to press down the portion i n d i c a t e d a s " A " i n t o t h e o u t e r c a s e " H " u n t i l t h e loading cam is opposite the large part of the keyhole slot. Turn the handle " D" and work it outwards with a semi- rotary movement, taking care that the loose pin "L" is not lost. To assemble, it is necessary to replace the loose pin " L " flat end in first, and press the body portion "A " down to the bottom portion of the outer case " H." Force home the loading cam with handle at 6 o'clock position by pressing the angled groove against the rounded end of the loose pin " L " until it clicks into position. Up to the moment of writing there has been an abundant supply of .22 calibre ammunition for use on military miniature rifle ranges, and there is no reason- w h a t e v e r t o a s s u m e t h a t t h e s t o c k s d e m a n d e d w i l l f a l l short of the supplies. The " Western "—a brand very largely used now—is very accurate and groups exceedingly w-ell at 100 yards range. This brand of .22, however, is heavily coated with grease or wax, similai- to the " Peters " or " Winchester " which is used in club-land to-day. Now,, while this hard grease no doubt assists the rifleman to obtain consistent accuracy, and lengthens the ''life" of the barrel, a large portion of it is scraped off the cartridge as the latter is pushed into the chamber of the .22 S . M . L . E . c o n v e r t e d r i fl e a n d i s f o r c e d i n t o t h e e x t r a c t o r way. This has no injurious effect upon the efficiency of b o l t a c t i o n r i fl e s , n o r d o e s i t r e t a r d a n e x e r c i s e o f deliberate firing, because if the extractor fails to withdraw the fired case the latter may be removed by a rod, the practice resumed, and the extractor way and extractor cleaned at first opportunity. But if rapid exercises are being carried out with magazine re-loading it is clear that the extractor way and extractor must be in perfect order otherwise a serious jam would occur, if a cartridge was- WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UK250 T H E R I F L E M A N . June, 1918. forced up against an empty case in the chamber of the r i fl e w h i c h a n e x t r a c t o r h a s f a i l e d t o r e m o v e . Inefficient extraction is, I presume, the only likely Irouble that will hinder satisfactory results being obtained. magazines was considerably expedited when using ammunition with a large proportion of the hard grease removed by a cloth slightly moistened with cleansing oil. Every Training Unit has at least eight miniature rifle asp i . T H E H I S C O C K - P A K K E R M A G A Z I N E . A-Body of magazine : B—Loading plunger ; c—Platform of au.xiliary magazine ; D—Handle of cam actuating platform levers (i) ; E-Cartridge slot ; F—Plunger retracting spring ; o—Auxiliary magazine lifting spring ; H—.304 rifle magazine, adapted to take ■■ H.-P." auxiliary magazine ; I—Platform levers ; K—Plunger and spring actuating lever raising platform ; L- Pin for depressing platform to loading position. I therefore advise that the greater proportion of the grease enveloping certain brands of ammunition be removed before - charging the magazines, and that the chamber of the rifle be invariably cleaned with a breech- brush before a rapid fire practice. If the accuracy of the ammunition is questioned after such treatment, I cannot do better than submit the appended diagrams of two targets to convince my readers that very fair results can be obtained. "A" ist class figure target 500yds.—25yds. was the result of 10 shots, '' Western " ammunition fired " A •• in 60 seconds (time limit) at 25yds., S.M.L.E. converted rifle, Hiscock-Parker magazine loading, service sights. "B" 2nd class figure target 200yds.—25yds. was the r e s u l t o f 1 0 s h o t s , " W i n c h e s t e r ' ' a m m u n i t i o n fi r e d i n 6 0 seconds (time limit) at 25yds., same rifle as used for " A " with the exception that Parker's aperture sight was employed instead of the service open sight. Not only were the two experiments considered by the witnesses to be extremely successful as regards the accuracy of the ammunition, but it was noticed that the re-eharging of magazines on its charge, so no difficulty should be experienced in exercising three recruits in the "mad minute " at one time, or four recruits in the Standard Test for rapid fire, the former being 15 shots and the latter 10 shots in one minute. When the appended diagrams were executed the firer had two magazines at hand and when the order " rapid fire " was " rapped out" the firer placed one magazine in his rifle, expended five rounds and pressed "B" magazine catch which allowed the Hiscock-Parker magazine to drop out; the firer then placed the second one into position and resumed, and finished with 13 seconds to spare. I cannot imagine that magazine loading will ever be introduced into the world of club shooting; not at any rate while the Martini action is such a prime favourite with our expert club " shots." So many drastic alterations would WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKJuke, 1918. T H E R I F L E M A N . 251 have to take place, one, for instance, being the re-arming of practically every club marksman and club, which would scarcely be tolerated. Only certain members would provide themselves with bolt action rifles and magazines, while the majority would be content to plod along indulging in slow and deliberate lire events, and leaving the '' rapids'' to those who were probably the fortunate possessors of two weapons, one for each class of event. No ! magazine loading on a miniature rifle range is decidedly a distinctly military venture, audit is, moreover, not always a success. I confess that I have dreamt of miniature clubmen tiring "mad minutes" with magazine rifles at insufferable silhouette targets, but in my saner moments 1 realised that when the war is over I would be more than satisfied if every young man and woman became a member of a rifle club, the greater proportion possessors of rifles and their names inscribed on the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs National Roll of Marksmen, testifying their ability as a steady and straight " shot." But at this moment we are training " Young England" to preserve our verv existence. We must emerge success ful. There are many potential factors that will help us to win—one assuredly being " Speed up your Rapids." {To be continued). [The latest invention dealing with rapid fire on miniature ranges, will conclude the above article next month]. CORRESPONDENCE. ELEV A TION ; A CONTROVERSIAL POINT . Sir,—Although " Argyll " in his letter upon the above subject admits that I established a clear case, for t h e s a k e o f c o n t r o v e r s y h e m e n t i o n s t h a t I h a v e o v e r looked the fact that there are two distinct types of eleva tion. But beyond the point which I raised, and which, by the way, he writes synonymously, the remainder of his letter appears somewhat irrelevant. However, I will endeavour to treat the various points as briefly as possi ble, but it appears quite clear to me that your correspon dent had but one type of rifle under observation—the S.M.L.E. converted .22 rifle—^when discussing the sub ject, and has apparently little knowledge of those weapons which are in use among rifle club members. Treating the paragraphs as they appear in The Riflemak of last month :— (3.) This is a recognised point in theory and [s hardly controversial, nor was it overlooked. In mj' arti cle I was " specialising " and not " generalising " ; more over, the type of elevation mentioned has been described fully, not only by myself, but by many other contributors to The Rifleman. (4, s.) " The second type of elevation." This point was the factor in my line of argument and was fully described and illustrated. Your correspondent uses the word " negligible." Now, to obtain accuracy and good results, no "thinking" rifleman would suffer the word 'negligible," especially when he invariably employs sights built on the lines of the micrometer caliper, upon which an adjustment as small as the two hundredth part of an inch may be made. Continuing, the paragraph unquestionably qualifies my " point " in theory, although perhaps extravagantly. (6.) The sighting of all rifles is based upon theory that the rifleman must endeavour by adjustment of eleva tion counteract the two forces which militate against direct flight of the bullet, i.e., force of gravitv and resist ance of air. Continuing, it also apfiears quite clear to me that " Arg>-ll " had the leaf of the S.M.L.E. rifle .303 under observation, because up to the 200 yards mark the ramps of the backsight bed are practically level. Again, when dealing with the graduations for 15 and 20 yards, he has in view the confusion which would probably ensue, because the S.M.L.E. Mark III. leaf has been adapted for .22 converted rifle shooting and has marked up on it—left side—graduations for 25 and 30 yards; right side—multiples or graduations for 100 yards of elevation, which are used when firing ball cartridge. But this leaf of the backsight is merely an expedient when adjusted upon a .22 calibre rifle, yet even this leaf could be marked up for the various distances where it is the custom to fire the lighter calibred ammunition were it desired.' However, no difficulty would be experienced in adjusting any sight manufactured expressly for .22 miniature rifle shooting, be it an open sight or an aper ture, in fact the calculations upon the latter are very simple, in which process all guessing is entirely eliminated and theoretical precision ensured.—I am, yours, etc., " C a r t o n . " M U N I T I O N W O R K S L E A G U E , 1 9 1 8 . S C O R E S : T H I R D R O U N D . TA B I . E — J U N E 9 T H . Matches Club.S.W. L; D.P.Score. I. Royal .Aircraft Factory .A Team 3300 6 1661 2. Vi c k e r s , C r a y f o r d 43I0 6 2295 3- H a m m e r s m i t h I r o n W o r k s . . . 43I0 6 2292 4- Associated Equipment Co. ... 43I0 6 2290 5- Callender 43I0 6 2273 6. Stirling 43I0 6 2218 7- J.A.P 32 I0 4 1716 8. G l o b e W o r k s . . . 3 0 3 00 1631 q. Royal Aircraft Factory B Team 3 0 3 00 1620 10. British Electric Transformer 4 0400 2193 II. Dennis 40400 21S2 Vi c k e r s J.A.P Sterling Assoc. Equipment Co. .. Hammersmith Iron Works 574 beat Dennis 572 554 578 573 546 by 2S J.A.P . Callender H a m m e r s m i t h I r o n W o r k s ^ 7 3 Royal Aircraft E'actory . A T e a m 5 6 6 .Assoc. Equipment Co. ... 572 Royal .Aircraft F a c t o r y B Te a m 5 5 0 , , 2 2 G l o b e W o r k s . . . 5 4 0 , , 1 4 C a l l e n d e r . . . 5 6 6 , , 1 2 British E 1 e c t r i c T r a n s f o r m e r . . . 5 6 S , , 5 FOUR TH ROUND. b e a t D e n n i s 5 3 2 b y 4 2 ,, British Electric T r a n s f o r m e r . . . 5 4 8 , , G l o b e W o r k s . . . 5 5 3 574 571 Sterling Vi c k e r s 546 571 23 20 20 i< WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKNext >