Milsurp After Hours

No, this isn't an early reference to tennis, but the home of the National Rifle Association's annual rifle meeting from 1860-1889.

Queen Victoria fired the inaugural shot at the first rifle meeting on 2 July 1860. A Whitworth muzzle-loading rifle placed in a mechanical rest had been aligned with a target at a distance of 400 yards. Joseph Whitworth handed a silken cord attached to the trigger to Her Majesty and the rifle was discharged by a slight pull on the cord. The adjustment was so accurate that the bullet struck the target within 1.25 inches from the centre.

The Queen had further offered encouragement by founding an annual prize that Volunteers competed for in two stages; the first at 300 (later shot at 200 yards), 500 and 600 yards, and the second at 800, 900 and 1000 yards. Prize money was £250.

With royal patronage and the daily papers and weekly-illustrated journals reporting widely on events, the ‘Wimbledon fortnight’ was marked for success and established as a fashionable summer attraction.

Following is an illustration from 'The Graphic' showing a firing point at Wimbledon in 1870.

http://www.researchpress.co.uk/pics/wimbledon1870.jpg[/pic]

You can read more about 'Wimbledon and the Volunteers' at www.researchpress.co.uk/volunteers/shooting/wimbledon.htm

David

Oh why can't we go back to that for Wimbledon Fortnight, instead of the buch of over-paid prima-donnas who knock a ball over a net to the ooohs and aaahs of the sheep of Tennis-vermin who clog up Wimbledon for two weeks every year and the continual artificial enthusiasm of the media<1>

Tom

<1> No, Tim Henman WILL NOT make it this year or any other bloody year because HE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH !

I should apologise for the above post, I live too close to Wimbledon to avoid the Tennis crowds (and I hate lawn tennis) and I was feeling somewhat dyspeptic while posting.

Gentlemen (and any Ladies who may be present), my most profound apologies for my fit of pique

Tom May

Why not combine the two. Tennis balls make great targets and add in bonus points for the media gurus.

Not much chance of that level of postive popular patronage and news media cover for shooting in Brtain these days David, alas alack!

Press coverage of 19thC shooting is extensive and I find quite fascinating. My main interest is the long range internationals held at Creedmoor, Dollymount and Wimbledon in the 1870's.

In 1875 a rifle match was held between Ireland and America (a return match after the 1874 match at Creedmoor). The match took place on 29 June at Dollymount, near Dublin, and, according to the Illustrated London News before an audience of between forty and fifty thousand people!

These were major sporting events and received appropriate media coverage.

Pathe News has a lot of film footage of early shooting matches at Bisley.

David

We were shooting a friends MAC 11 .380 back in February using an old logging road as a range. Chasing tennis balls with a 32 round mag is a real blast, when the shooter is ready someone rolls a tennis ball down the road and the shooter tries to make it jump.