Gedenkbuch

One of the more interesting things that I was able to see and browse through in my travels was a copy of the Gedenkbuch or Memory Book for the third German Bundeschiessen that was held in Vienna in 1868. It was a bit of a challenge in that the publisher neglected to print an English version and also used a type face that takes a little getting used to. That being said, the writing was plain and straight forward-as far as I could tell. The book is the "after action" report of the shoot.
The third Bundeschiessen attracted over five thousand competitors to shoot from one hundred sixty positions. This was not a small undertaking and required planning not only for conducting and scoring the matches but also for housing, feeding, transporting, and caring for the other needs of the participants. This seems to have been done with a great deal of intelligent thought and attention to detail. For example, it specified the kind, quality, and cost for a meal.
It is useful to remember that these gatherings were inspired by a growing desire of the German people to be united politically. This had been taking place even while planning for the festival was going on. Austria and Prussia went to war in the summer of 1866, just two years before. Prussia thumped the Austrians pretty well, inflicting casualties at a rate of about seven to one using their new secret weapon, the Dreyse breech-loading needle rifle. Prussia then simplified government administration of the German states that had been allied with Austria by doing it themselves. Nevertheless and surprisingly so, the mood at the Bundeschiessen seems to have been brotherly and not focused on the past.
The actual matches, and there were several, were held at 175 and 300 meters and were shot off-hand. For example, the Wehrmanns-scheiben was fired with something like a service rifle. The rules specified no set trigger, no hooked butt plate, and no patched bullets. The target was at 300 meters and was about three feet tall and half as wide. I neglected to record the scores but there seems to have been some fine shooting. The winner of the rapid fire target (300 meters, three minutes) won with a Peabody single shot-way ahead of the Winchester repeaters.