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 Match Rifle, or “small-bore” shooting as it was called in the early days, has always been concerned with promoting scientific rifle shooting and improvising both rifles and ammunition. The early competitions on provincial ranges were mostly at 700 and 800yds and firers were content with scores of 10 or 12 - few retiring despite regular series of misses. Indeed, finishing without a miss was somewhat of a triumph. Prize lists for the early competitions detailed the rifles used, as well as scores. The military weapons used by the Volunteers could not compete beyond 600yds and the final of the Queen’s Prize for the first few years was shot with small-bore rifles.
From the first, NRA competitions at Wimbledon went back to 1000yds but the long-range aficionados were not satisfied. They wanted to shoot at longer distances. Horatio Ross, first Captain of the Scottish eight, had his own 1400yd range near his home, a few miles from Stonehaven. Not content with this, in August 1860, he and his son Edward, the first Queen’s Prize winner, arranged a shoot at 900 and 1800yds. The targets were casks placed in the stern of cobles moored in the Montrose basin. At 900yds Edward scored 10 consecutive hits with a Whitworth rifle he had won at Wimbledon. “At the 1800yds target Mr Horatio Ross, however, showed his superiority and sent the balls whizzing through the air and into the target with marvellous accuracy. When the spectator looked at the target – a mere speck on the water - and took account that nine seconds had elapsed between the ball leaving the gun and being seen to strike, he could not be otherwise than astonished at the astounding accuracy of the rifle when in the hands of an experienced marksman”. Nowadays it would take about three seconds for the bullet to reach its mark. Ross used two muzzle-loaders – a Whitworth and a Lancaster and a breech-loading Westley Richards. They were all equally successful at 900yds but the Lancaster seems to have been superior at 1800yds.
In 1865 and 1866 the NRA ran competitions at Gravesend at 2000yds and 1500yds of exceptional experimental interest – one for heavy muzzle-loaders with telescopic sights and the other for military breech-loaders. The competitions were not continued in view of the matter generally being taken up by the War Office. In both years the muzzle-loading competition was won with a Metford rifle.
Metford has been called the “father of the modern rifle” and he continued to experiment until the early 1890’s. To him must go the credit of experimental firing at the longest distance. He would shoot at anything from 2000 to 3000yds, firing in calm weather at some rock projecting out of the water on an unfrequented coast. He could then watch the splash of the bullet in the water. He also worked with his lifelong friend Sir Henry Halford on the latter’s 2000yd range at Wistow. Halford would “assemble small parties both of choice spirits such as W E Metford and of keen young shots; the days would be spent on his private range or in the workshop and the evenings in downright shooting talk in his library”. They were later joined in their ballistic studies by T F Fremantle (3rd Lord Cottesloe).
On his death, Sir Henry Halford left the Wistow estate to TF Fremantle. The range continued to be used until 1939 when the last shot fired by his son J H Fremantle at 1500yds hit the central bolt of the ringing bullseye. He refused to try and emulate the feat on his 80th birthday 40 years later.
Colonel Hopton was another keen extra long range shot with a 1400 yd range in Herefordshire. This he extended to 1500yds by making a lovely clearing in the trees where those who shot with him in the spring lay amongst the bluebells. Hopton’s first shot at the new distance was a central bullseye. He “was awestruck and feeling that he could not better that shot, packed up at once and returned home”. Hopton and invited friends shot there from 1910 to 1933. He died in 1934 and soon the house was closed and the estate sold.
 The War, more stringent safety restrictions and changing life-styles might have been the end of shooting further back than Bisley’s 1200yd Stickledown range. However in 1955, Major Ronnie Maxwell of the Black Watch was appointed to Barry Budden near Dundee. One range already had a telephone line back to 1700yds though no firing points. Over the years with the help of military bulldozers the range was extended to 2100yds. The Barry long Range Rifle Club met yearly with the whole party staying at the Maxwell’s house at Baldovan. Sometimes they aimed a whole target off or sighted at aiming targets at the side while the true target was white. Admiral Hutton prepared range tables for elevation and wind. Sadly, Ronnie died in 1960 and Barry was no more. Two other shoots were held in 1968 and 1970 but then the Carnoustie Golf course extended into the danger area and shooting was no longer possible on the longer ranges.
1963 was the last year of the .303 and twelve match riflemen assembled at the Proof and Experimental Establishment at Pendine, South Wales to shoot for the last time at 2000yds before both rifles and ammunition were changed. As at Barry there were white targets and aiming targets were placed alongside. The range was along a road and the firing points on the backs of lorries. Admiral Hutton had made calculators with a rotating arm to set against the wind direction and scales which showed wind and elevation changes. All the shooting was coached; unfortunately individual results are not known.
Was this to be the end? It seemed so until the owner of an estate in the Hebrides offered a single iron target range in a deer forest. There the distances go from 1200yds (seldom used) to 2640yds (a mile and a half). The target is white and the black aiming mark is the plate of a ringing bullseye. There have been many good scores: the most notable perhaps, Robin Pizer’s 84 ex 100 at 2640yds in 1985 – a record that is likely to stand for a long time; also Martin Brown’s 47 ex 50 at 1800yds with five shots within 6” of the centre.
The firers at Pendine using .303 with the 174 grain bullet wondered if as good scores would be made with .762. The results in the Hebrides using handloaded 190 and 200 grain Sierra Match King bullets show that they needn’t have worried. With different “recipes” possible for each batch of ammunition, handloading has brought scientific experimentation and hope of improvement back to Match Rifle.
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