Wally Enga wrote: 6pt-sika wrote: C.W. Rowland was the man that set the 200 yard plain base 10 shot group record in 1901 and it stood at the ASSRA until about a year or so ago.
Does anyone have what the group size was for this 200 yard plain base 10 shot record?
I find it really interesting what some of these early C/B shooters were capable of.
Wally
The Ultimate in Rifle Precision
By: Townsend Whelen
Sportsman's Press, 1951
THE WORLD'S RECORD AT 200 YARDS
American riflemen have always considered the group of ten shots at 200 yards fired by Mr. C. W. Rowland of Boulder, Colorado on May 16, 1901 as being the World's Record for accuracy. Other rifles and ammunition which have made records at longer distances have never equaled this at 200 yards, and thus we think that this target can be properly regarded as The Record.
Mr. Rowland's target, which is reproduced here in the exact size from the original, was shot with a .32-40 breech-muzzle loading barrel made by H. M. Pope, in a Ballard action. It was shot from a machine rest, probably the Pope rest, in which the naked barrel is uniformly rested at the breech and close to the muzzle, the rifle being shot with its butt-stock on it, and the butt-plate being caught and braked by the hand after a short recoil travel. The charge was a lead alloy bullet of unknown weight (probably 180 to 200 grains) lubricated with Leopold's lubricant (same as the present Ideal Lubricant), and propelled by a charge of Hazards FG black powder. The bullet was loaded from the muzzle in the usual Pope manner, and the case filled with powder inserted from the breech. Mr. Rowland has noted the weather as “No wind,” and “Sprinkling;” conditions most favorable for black powder.
Mr. Rowland's target has been measured very carefully. There is no way to measure it with a great degree of accuracy that I know of, so I will outline the manner in which it was measured. We made this assumption: in the target above the record target there is one distinct bullet hole. The assumption is that this shot displaced the same amount of paper as the shots in the record target. This seems to be a safe assumption as presumably the rifle, paper and bullet were the same.
We measured this single hole quite carefully”€optically under 4X magnification. The average diameter of this hole is .245-inch. Then we carefully measured the extreme spread of the record group”€that is the extreme of the displaced paper. This figure is .970-inch. Subtracting the diameter of a single bullet hole (.245” displaced paper) gives an extreme spread, center to center, of .725-inch for the Rowland record group.
The target edges here are irregular. The group has been much handled and apparently the outline of the group has been traced many times before it was mounted, so I do not believe it can be measured any more accurately than by the above method. The result is accurate, I believe, to within plus or minus five-thousandths inch.
In the DuBois, Penna. Matches of May 28, 1950, Mr. Jack Snyder fired a ten shot group at 200 yards, which was measured at the match and given an extreme spread, center to center of .717-inch. It was shot from bench rest with a .219 Donaldson rifle, Gregoire barrel, Mauser action, Unertl scope; complete rifle being built by Taylor & Robbins. The 55 grain Sierra bullet was used. This Snyder target is also shown here, reproduced exact size. At the time that this target was fired it was announced unofficially that it was smaller than the Rowland group, and therefore a World's Record.
Mr. Bob Wallack has questioned the Snyder group measurement, for in comparing the two targets it is somewhat obvious that the Rowland group is the smaller. The Snyder group was also measured using a much more accurate measuring device, but with the same basic assumption. Here we used Zeiss optical equipment and 20X magnification. The extreme spread of displaced paper was .9055-inch. Average diameter of displaced paper for a shot was .1395-inch, individual readings at three points being .13945", .14065", and .13815-inch. Subtracting .1395” from .9055", leaves an extreme spread, center to center, of .766-inch for the Snyder group.
This, of course, does not agree with the .717 measurement taken at the DuBois matches, which again brings out the fact that it is impossible to score one-hole targets correctly by any method now being used. It also brings up the need for a final official check of any targets that are to be considered for a record.
May I comment on this matter of target measurements? The reason for the inaccurate measurements using present methods (half diameter or full diameter plugs) on the one-hole groups is the varying amount of paper displaced by various bullets at different velocities. As soon as the holes overlap, the outside edge becomes the indicating point rather than the center. Between the two extremes of a true wad-cutter and a pointed bullet at low velocity would be the range of error.
This whole business of measuring groups is quite a problem. It would be considerably simplified if we could use a target of some material on which the bullet would punch a full-size hole. Measuring then from outside edges would be accurate and consistent. Right now though accurate measurement of small groups is almost impossible. The measurement of these two groups required just about an hour. On the other hand the measurements we are now obtaining are comparable between groups, and even though they are not entirely accurate, no particular injustice is being done the shooter.
The matter points to the high desirability of the adoption of National Standard Bench Rest Targets, printed on the same paper for all bench rest matches throughout the country, at least until such time as we discover a paper that will punch a true, exact bullet diameter hole with any bullet at any velocity.
We desire to give full credit to Mr. Jack Snyder for his remarkable group, and for his unexcelled performance at the bench. While we cannot truthfully say that we believe it equals or excels the Rowland group, we do believe that it is, at this date, the record for ten shots at 200 yards fired from bench rest, and have recorded it as such a record. The Snyder group was fired from a bench rest with fixed breech loading, and we believe that it exhibits a higher degree of performance, both in marksmanship and in preparing the ammunition, than the firing of a group from machine rest with the Pope system of loading.”€
JOEL G. HODGE.
