I read with interest the feature of the month article "(Is This) L.L. Hepburn’s Creedmoor Rifle From 1874?" by Richard Binger, available via the homepage.

There are some corrections however needed with regards to the event.

The author says that "In 1873 the Irish Long-range rifle team was fresh off the winning of the Elcho Shield trophy, having bested all of the other teams from all over the British Empire."

The Elcho Shield is infact a 'home countries' international. It originally started from a challenge made by Scotland in 1861, to shoot against England. The first match was held in 1862. Ireland were admitted to the competition in 1865, and in 1873 they won for the first time, beating England and Scotland. No other teams 'from the Empire' were eligible to compete.

The inference of the article is that land for Creedmoor was aquired after the Irish Challenge (at least to my reading!). The land had actually been acquired in 1872 and the range opened in 1873. Ireland's challenge by the way was published in the New York Herald. It was the Amateur Rifle Club of that city that accepted the challenge.

The statement that "L.L. Hepburn was one of the nine members of the U.S. team." is only correct in so far as Hepburn's participation in the match. There were actually only six members in the team. The maximum number of members in any team during the brief period of international target rifle matches that finished in 1880 was eight.

There was an equal distribution of rifle makes used in the 1874 match, and no need for resorting to 'half rifles'! Team members and the rifles used were:

Col. J.Bodine - Remington
H.Fulton - Remington
L.Hepburn - Remington

Gen. T.S. Dakin - Sharps
Col. Gildersleeve - Sharps
G.W.Yale - Sharps

With regards to the rifle and its possible use by Hepburn in 1874 I cannot add any information based on fact. However, I note Remington refer to the .44-77 as a sporting calibre in their 1878 catalogue. Long range cartridges are listed as having a capacity of 90-105 grains. The authors rifle is referred to as a "prototype for the #3 Hepburn" which was patented in 1879. Wouldn't this have to be a very early prototype to have been used in the 1874 match? Also what did Bodine and Fulton shoot - presumably there wasn't enough time to develop different rifles for the team members?

David

The New York Legislature of 1872 was induced to appropriate $25,000 for the purchase of a range near New York City, the National Rifle Association agreeing to raise $5,000 on its part. The land purchased for the range was an oblong strip some 1200 yards long, running almost due north south. The firing lines ran across its 570 foot width, with the butts at the northern end. 

An inaugural rifle meeting was held at Creedmoor on 21 June 1873. This was essentially a short range affair, with a rapid fire 100 yard match and two 200 yard matches (military and ‘any rifle’) for individuals. The main event was a regimental team competition shot at 200 and 500 yards.   

The Amateur Rifle Club fired their first match at the Creedmoor Rifle Range on 12 July 1873. The match was shot at 500 yards and the winner was J. Bodine of Highland, N.Y. 

Ireland's Challenge issued in 1873 had originally included 1100 yards, however this could not be met as 1000 yards was the maximum that could be accomodated.

Roberts' comments about the competing nations in the Elcho Shield are incorrect. The Kolapore is, I think, the competition held between nations from the Empire.

David

I can understand the confusion arising with Roberts with regards to the NRA(GB) rifle matches and who competed for what. There were (and are) a huge number of trophies. Modern communications make it so much easier to find information, but when Roberts was writing about events the other side of the Atlantic he didn't have access to the internet! 

Contemporary newspapers gave a lot of covereage to the matches at Wimbledon, the Times reporting on an almost daily basis during the July NRA(GB) meeting. The last match at Wimbledon was 1889. After that the NRA Rifle Championship moved to Bisley where they are still held today.

With regards to the 1,000 yard range and timing of construction. The range was designed from the outset to accomodate 1,000 yards. Purchase of the land was agreed in August 1872 and the plan adopted provided for 13 targets, admitting practice at each up to 1,000 yards. By the time of construction this was 20 targets.

I'm not sure if the 1,000 yard firing point was available when the range was opened on 21 June 1873, events appearing to have been limited to 200 and 500 yards. However, by that October the NRA held matches at 1,000 yards in their first annual contest.

So, back to your original question, "was Creedmoor expanded for the 1874 match?" The answer is no; the 1,000 yard range was operating by then. 

The challenge from Ireland was not published until November 1873.

David

Pete, I'f I'm correct David has, check out his website under his name.  DWS

DWS,
  Yeah... With Winter coming on I'll have more time to browse David's and others sites.

David,

  So true about the details. "The Rifle" had fairly comprehensive articles on the top shooters of the day, some of whom had shot at Creedmoor, along with an engraving showing their offhand style(s). I suppose this series was pretty popular as they had an article per issue for quite some time.

  Today, the historical aspects fleshing out a little more detail of the more famous shooters back then would be interesting. As it is if you've heard of these guys you've probably only read about their scores at the famous matches, but know little about the guns, loads, and manner in which they went about it.

  An example would be E. F. Richardson. He adopted the hip rest position in off hand shooting because of an earlier accident to his arm. He was so good at that position that there was talk of outlawing it. He put that idea to rest when he started using the extended arm position and still beat everybody. To me it's stuff like this that makes those people come alive. The article goes on for a coupla thousand words, possibly, describing the gun(s) he used, details of his loads, sights, etc. If you've heard of this guy at all it probably was thru the better scores he shot at matches..... which are also listed in the article.

  Might make an interesting series of articles for the Journal!

PETE

ISBN is correct although I have never sold any other than via my web site. Orders can be made by credit card using paypal. These are privately published by me as a hobby.

The details I find quite fascinating and do like to learn more about the shooting personalities. It is so easy to end up with a pile of shooting statistics but knowing nothing of the people that took part.

David

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