3-017-136 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The National Rifle Association prize meeting at Wimbledon:...the Horatio Ross Prize, 1865. '...for a combined performance of running, loading, and firing...The competitor, in his 'stocking feet,' having his spiked ramrod stuck in the ground, lies down on a cork mattrass and prepares to fire his first shot. The officer in charge...begins to count the five minutes...As soon as the first shot is fired, the shooter, rising up, loads, with almost inconceivable rapidity, from a flask...the loading finished, the man lies down, fires again, and then, rising up, is...apprised of the result of his shot, while loading with powder only. The powder rammed home, he takes rifle and loader...and starts off like a hare to run round the post fifty yards distant, which he must do before he can fire another shot. But, while running to the post, he has fished out a bullet from his pocket, and...enters the bullet into the bore, introduces the head of the ramrod, and is ready to resume his full speed in running back, ramming home the while. The instant he reaches the mattrass he casts himself headlong down, takes aim, fires, loads, fires again...The endurance, speed, and skill of hand and eye required in this remarkable match are exceedingly great".' From "Illustrated London News", 1865.