Individual Rifle Championsip Match.

  The annual Election Day 100 shot individual championship match, which has been held in the vicinity of New York City for the past ten years, was hled on Nov. 3 at Armbruster's shooting park, Jersey City. This annual meeting of the expert riflemen of New York and vicinity, where they come together to test thei skill for the best 100-shot score and the honors for the championship for the year,has from it's inception been the one feature of the year's outdoor shooting to claim the attention and interest of our riflemen who use the schuetzen rifle on the 200-yard range and the 25-ring target. For the past ten years each annual contest has brought together our best marksmen, also many others who have an ambition for becoming proficient in the use of the rifle. To the latter class of riflemen these annual meetings have been, as it were, a school for instruction, an opportunity whereby points were to be learned that would lead to higher averages and nearer to the goal of the expert class. In referring to the record of winners in the past ten years, it will be seen that only two men have figured as the winners for the best 100 shots. They are F. C. Ross and M. Dorrler. These two have in all these contests divided the honors between them. The others, who have been in at the close of each annual event, have had to console themselves with the hope that next year success might come their way.
  Such, in fact, is a summary of the Individual Rifle Championship match down to 1902, when through a misunderstanding upon the part of the Williamsburgh Shooting Society, of Brooklyn, as to the intentions of the men who had had charge of conducting the match in the past years, unwittingly that society took the matter of holding the match into its hands and so notified the riflemen to this effect. This action upon the part of the Williamsburgh people produced a feeling of dissent upong the part of the regular management, or those who had promoted the affair from the start, and as a consequence the shoot of 1902 was not recognized as regular and the annual bar to the Hayes trophy, given annually by Wm. Hayes, was not attached for that year (1902)
  These conditions brought about a renewed interest in the annual match among those who had been interested in it, and of whom the majority were members in the Zettler Rifle Club. These men brought about the action of this club, whereby it decided to take charge of the match in the future, and at the monthly meeting of the club in October action was taken which insures the success of this popular contest during the life of the Zettler Rifle Club.
  The fact of the Zettler club having taken the match in hand created more interest in it, and a larger entry list resulted, so much so that on the day of the match there were twenty-nine entries, which was within three of the record of thirty-two. In the twenty-nine entries four states were represented; namely, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and in these entries the most expert riflemen of these four states were represented.
  Most of the marksmen entered into the contest were on the range as soon as the target house was open. Among them were J. Edward Kelley, and H.S. Roberts of Boston, Mass. These two riflemen had come to take part in the contest with telescopes attached to their rifles. There were norules in the programme governing the use of the telescope, either for or against it. In the matchesdown to 1901 the question had never come up for adjustment. In the match at Cypress Hills, held by the Williamsburgh Society, the telescope and its use came up for adjustment, and after a consultation of the Williamsburgh people and others interested, it was decided to admit the use of the telescope. F.C. Ross was present at this shoot and shot his score using the telescope, winning the high score.The fact of the use of the 'scope in this match led the Boston visitors to believe that it was to be permitted in the match this year, and as a consequence the committee in charge of the shoot had a problem before them, for none of the local riflemen used the 'scope, and when they saw the visitors fitted out with them there was a growl of dissent against there use by a number of the locals.The group of dissenters was led by the vetern Michael Dorrler, Dorrler had shot in all these matches with the peep and globe sight, he held the highest record, 2257, and he naturally did not want to see it pulled down from the pedestal of fame through the agency of the telescope.