Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2016
The first meeting of the N.R.A. was held at Wimbledon in 1860. The first shot was fired by Queen Victorial from a Whitworth rifle on a machine rest, at 400 yds., and struck the bull's-eye. The Whitworth muzzle-loading rifle won many of the important prizes at this and subsequent meetings prior to 1871. Its most important features, arrived at after exhaustive experiments, were a smaller bore of -450 in., with a twist of rifiing of one turn in 20 in., and an elongated mechanically fitting projectile. Long-range rifle construction is also largely indebted to Whitworth for the highly accurate and superior tools and processes introduced by him in this branch of manufacture