Army and Navy Review 1915 Panama-California Edition - Balboa Park

SAN DIEGO AND MARE ISLAND DETACHMENTS NEAR TIE
IN RANGE CONTEST
Whether the honors of a victory in the Marine corps inter-post match
for the Pacific coast shall rent with the marine barracks, San Diego, or be
proudly flaunted by an opposing team at the marine barracks, Mare Island
navy yard, will depend upon a decision by the major general commandant
of the Marine corps at Washington, with whom rests the decision on a
technical point, the settlement of which means victory or defeat for the
home boys, by a hair’s breadth.
The match was shot at the rifle range on North Island yesterday, four
teams of eight men being the contestants. They were from the Puget
Sound navy yard, Bremerton, Wash.; Mare Island navy yard, Marine barracks,
San Francisco; and Marine barracks, San Diego. At the close of the
skirmish run, which was the last division of the match, the local team and
the Marine Island crack shots were so near together in their scores that the
decision of Major-General Barnett, on the technical point will leave a margin
of only ten points for the winning team. Bremerton and San Francisco
did not seriously menace the standing of the other two teams at any
time. The divisions of the match were as follows:
Slow fire— 20 shots at 200 yards.
Rapid fire— 20 shots at 200 yards.
Changing position fire— 20 shots at 200 yards.
Slow fire— 10 shots at 600 yards.
Rapid fire— 10 shots at 600 yards. Skirmish run— 500 to 200 yards,
5 shots at each range.
The Mare Island men took the lead in the early shooting, but the San
Diego team soon overtook them, and from that time on to late afternoon,
when the match closed, it was like a tug-of-war, first one and then the
other team being in the lead. The day was pei'fect, and some of the same
men who did the fine shooting at the range last week, in the individual contests,
were members of the contending teams, keeping up their good form
almost without exception.
The teams from Bremerton, Mare Island and San Francisco will leave
for their posts this morning, and the data of the match will be forwarded
to Washington, with a statement of the divergent views of the contestants.
The decision of the commandant will be awaited with keep interest, owing
to the “nip-and-tuck” character of the struggle.
The technical point involved turns upon the fact that in the first half
of the skirmish run, number 13 target was found to have been hit with
more shots than the total shots allowed for one run, some contestant evidently
having fired at the wrong target, a mistake which freqeuntly occurs
in skirmish runs at long range.
Capt. C. H. Lyman, executive officer of the match, ruled that the fairest
solution of the difficulty would be to run the course over. Some objection
was made to this, with the counter proposition that the man whose
target was credited with the excessive number of shots should make the
run again. This was finally done, and the two results will be incorporated
in the report, without final ruling by the executive officer.
It was a disappointment to officers and men of the Marine corps that
the inter-post match for the Pacific coast for 1915 should be without decision,
but the disappointment found some compensation in the fact that the
expert riflemen were so evenly matched as to conclude the day’s shooting
with a very narrow margin between them.