19th Century Competitive Rifle Shooting

[RattlesnakeJack]

On British Militaria Forums I have posted about 30 or so rather
interesting engravings related to competitive rifle shooting
originally published in the Illustrated London News from 1860 through
1897 - the very heyday of the activity among Rifle Volunteers and many
others ....

(These are posted in the form of thumbnail links to the larger images,
so  this page shouldn't take an eon to open ....)

If interested, here is the link ....
http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/topic/8054

[Dr. Bob]

When I click the link all I get is a blank screen.  Tried to copy the link into Google and got another thread, but couldn't find your pic's. 

[RattlesnakeJack]

Fixed now, I believe .....

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[Dr. Bob]

YES it DOES!!

Fascinating stuff!  I guess that lady Royals don't shoulder rifles.  My mother [5'1" & 102#] shot high power and small bore and held a couple of National Records [NRA - USA].  You can't hurt my feelings by saying that my mother wore combat boots.  I'll just grin and agree.  My dad & I were shooting members of the top civilian team at the National Matches at Camp Perry, OH in 1962. [Missouri State Rifle Association]

Interesting that the shooting while on your back with the feet toward the target appeared first in 1889.  I thought that it was older than that.

Is the shooting range at Wimbledon near the modern tennis venue?

Thanks for sharing this!

[Angel_Eyes]

Dr. Bob, I think you will find that the Wimbledon range disappeared many years ago and the NRA of UK (1859-60) moved out to Bisley Military range near Guildford, Surrey.
That year was 1889 and they have been there ever since and they shoot something like 1700 different competitions scattered between civilian, military,rifles and handguns. (Not many civilian handgun comps since 1997)

Hope you find this useful, UKshooter.

[RattlesnakeJack]

It was interesting to note that the last image (1897) depicts a team competing for the "Royal Cambridge Trophy" at Wimbledon .... although whether at the old shooting ground or elsewhere is not clear.

It seems apparent that this match was a sort of "mounted biathlon" for cavalry types.