The Miniature Rifle Range
At the turn of the 19th. Century, the idea of the Miniature Rifle Range developed from the widely perceived need to encourage rifle shooting throughout Great Britain and others of those countries which now form the Commonwealth. This was the result of British troops being out-performed by Boer riflemen in the two Boer Wars. At the very beginning of the 20th. Century, Lord Roberts initiated a movement to form rifle clubs around the country, each with its own range on which miniature calibre rifles could be fired either on short outdoor ranges or even indoors where large buildings or sheds allowed.
Typical, was a club range constructed in a railway arch in 1902,
of which the formation and construction was reported in the June issue of the "Railway Magazine" of the time.
A Railway Rifle Range.
THE scientific rifle-shot, or pot-hunting marksman, with his ample paraphernalia of orthoptics, paint-box, vernier, and other mysterious implements of the range, little dreams, as his train rumbles Bisley-ward out of Waterloo Station, and over the roofs and housetops, that below him., underneath the metal roadway over which he is serenely rolling, is a fully-equipped rifle range, albeit only 33 yards long, where marksmen of the London and South-Western Railway, many of them scarce a whit less skilful than Bisley's best, do congregate for practice in the important art of rifle-shooting, and to try conclusions with visiting teams from Volunteer battalions or civilian rifle clubs.
To be precise, in one of the railway arches of the London and South-Western Railway, not a hundred miles from the Canterbury Music-Hall, is fitted up a miniature rifle range, complete in every detail, which Major A. E. Balfour, Inspector of Musketry for the Home and Woolwich Districts, describes as the best Morris tube range he has yet seen out of the large number which it has been his duty to inspect.
The range is for the use of the London and South-Western Railway Rifle Club, a flourishing and successful association which was founded twelve months ago. By kind permission of the directors of the company, one of the arches beneath the permanent way, not far from the Westminster Bridge Road, was set apart for. the purpose, and transformed into a Morris tube rifle range. The photograph here reproduced, taken from the firing point, will convey better than any description, a general idea of its arrangement. The length from butt to firing point is 33 yards, and the targets, which can be made to travel between butt and firing point over taut wires stretched the length of the range by the simple process of revolving a wheel beside the marksman, are reduced proportionately on the Bisley scale.
In addition to the ordinary targets, there is a series of dummy figures representing men at a distance of 500 yards. These - which can be seen erect in the photograph - by means of a simple mechanical device, are controlled by a lever at the firing point, and can be made to appear or disappear at the timekeeper's will.
The lighting is extremely well-arranged, and is provided by incandescent gas lamps placed in front of each target on either side. In front of the targets there is a small and well-protected marker's cabin.
Membership of the London and South-Western Railway Rifle Club, which entails a small annual subscription, is limited to employees of the company, the majority of the members being drawn from the clerical staff. Last year there were 120 members, but this year it is hoped to considerably increase the number.
The success of the club is due to the generous support of the Directors and Chief Officers of the company.
A handsome silver challenge cup has been presented by the Chairman, Lt.-Col. the Honourable H. W. Campbell, for annual competition, and the expense of providing weapons has been met by gifts of rifles from Colonel R. Williams, M.P., and Captain J. Barlow, of the National Rifle Association, and also by donations from Mr. Fred J. Macaulay and Mr. D. Drummond, the Locomotive Superintendent.
THE RIFLE RANGE OF THE LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN RAILWAY
RIFLE CLUB IN AN ARCH BENEATH THE RAILWAY
The General Manager, Mr. Charles J. Owens, is President of the club, and takes a keen interest in its welfare, and has given several valuable prizes for competition amongst the members.
The hon. secretary is Mr. C. E. Worsdell, of the Cashier's Office, Nine Elms.
The club is open on three evenings in the week, and the great interest shown by the members has resulted in a notable improvement in their shooting. Prizes, it has already been remarked, are periodically offered for competition, and matches are also contested with Volunteer teams and civilian rifle clubs. In these, the railway marksman have been especially successful. Out of fourteen matches, nine have been won. Among recent victories should be mentioned those over a team of ten from the North London Rifle Club, and teams representing the 2nd. East Surrey Volunteers, which included Cyclist Comber, Silver Medallist in the King's Prize at Bisley last year, and the Queen's Westminsters. Morris tubes and ammunition are at present used by the club, but experiments are to be made shortly with the new Kynoch adapter.
The committee is fully alive to the importance of providing opportunities for practice at the outdoor ranges as well as indoors, and with this object they have engaged targets at 200, 500 and 600 yards on Saturday afternoons at Bisley during the summer months.
Amidst all the present clamour about rifle-shooting, and the necessity of its practice by the nation generally, all praise should be given to so admirable an association as the London and South-Western Railway Rifle Club, which has made so much out of the unpromising material of a railway arch.
A miniature calibre rifle was then considered to be one of small calibre,
such as the even then ubiquitous .22 rimfire cartridge,
or the less common "Morris" cartridge of .297/.230-inch centre-fire calibre.
The organisation of these clubs fell to what became the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs ca. 1904.
The well-attended opening day of a Miniature Rifle Range in Melbourne, Australia, 1907.
This was a "Tube" range with a wire pulley system for returning targets to the firing point.
Most rifles used were obsolete service rifles converted by sleeving or adapting their .303"CF barrels with .22 rifled tubes. The most common of these was the converted Martini-Henry rifle of Zulu War fame, and its follow-on Martini-Metford and Martini-Enfield types.
As the "Long" Lee-Enfield rifles moved into obsolescence, these too were converted or adapted for miniature range use, as was the later Short Lee-Enfield Rifle between the two World Wars.
Service rifles were converted by well-known gunsmiths, and purpose-built small-frame small-bore rifles were also manufactured by such as the Birmingham Small Arms Company - with their BSA Cadet rifles - and independent firms like W.W. Greener and C.G. Bonehill. The A.G. Parker and Parker-Hale companies were also heavily involved, with their Parkerifling conversion system.
At the beginning of the First World War in 1914, Captain C.B.I. Jackson wrote an article published in that year's January edition of the "Army Review" detailing the development and use of various types of Miniature Calibre Rifle Ranges for training from a military standpoint.
The configuration and usage of the Harmonised Landscape Targetry is specifically covered in the article.
This is in the form of a text-searchable flip-page document that may take a few moments to load.
Between the two World Wars such ranges were continually in use by the military,
often built with 'sand' scenery for Field-Firing realism.
A later document, from 1943 during the Second World War,
detailing the construction of a "Field-Firing" Range.
The famous "Short" Lee-Enfield remained in use for miniature range training for many years,
latterly in the form of the Rifle No.2 Mk.IV.
This range, in use by the Royal Fusiliers in 1938,
had a model train running the 'tin-hat' targets between the firing points and the 'butts'.
Perhaps not the best system for raw recruits in their first musketry practice!
The Royal Navy engineered some of the more unusual miniature rifle ranges,
such as the one here set up on the side deck of HMS Ajax in 1922.
An armour plate backstop there may have been, although rather on the low side.
One has to assume that the safety zone was deemed sufficient,
and that a good watch was kept for potential nautical encroachment.
