OK, as a relatively long-time ASSRA member, sometimes writer, and former Board member, let me stick in my 2˘ worth.
The whole concept of preserving a period in history will be difficult enough with various later revisions as to what was going on in that period. The sport we call schuetzen was in the midst of what could best be described as an arms race
during the period in question. If you just take one of the patriarchs of the game, the venerable HM Pope, the things he did with rifles, barrels, sights, and loading techniques were non-traditional to the extreme! He set guns up with scopes while most were using iron sights (and even had to retrofit irons he cobbled together at an event one time.) He experimented with rifling techniques and found one that was a huge improvement over the "traditional" ones of the day. How about breech/muzzle loading... that was a departure. And then that duplex powder measure he made that hid his use of two powders at once from the casual observer. I would say that old Harry was not bound to much of any tradition, yet he was a guiding light in the movement we seek to emulate and he certainly was not alone in his experimenting to seek better scores. What we are trying to do is catch a moment in time that was itself in a state of rapid change and experimentation, sort of a Schrodinger's Cat type of thing. We can argue about it as long as we want, but that cat is still going to fool us every time!
Froggie
PS To those wondering whether a coil spring high wall is traditional, they came out in 1908, so inasmuch as that was before WW I, they fit the definition. Just sayin'.