Sparks LRR Sniper
SPARKS LRR SNIPER. (See also, RIFLE, SHARPSHOOTER, SPARKS LRR)The characteristics for which other Sparks rifles are known are also evident in the manufacturer's sniper model. That is to say, it is an easy-to- handle, long-range, single-shot rifle of reliable, powerful, and robust design. Particularly suited to hunters of large game, the Sparks LRR Sniper could take down a beast of considerable size, such as a lion or an elephant, at a distance of up to one kilometer. In the United States, it has proven well-suited to the buffalo hunt. Should you, however, be unfamiliar with the particulars of the power necessary to overpower quarry of this size, I offer a second comparison. With the regulation charge of powder, the LRR Sniper propelled a bullet through 33 half-inch elm planks, and the missile was then only stopped by a 34th panel of solid oak
Correspondence, Philip Huff Jones
Typewritten, carbon copy
June 29, 1895
Father,
Victor Caldwell has failed us. That onion-eyed rump-fed miscreant! I will wring the man's neck who recommended him; surely he must have known the nature of the Caldwell's character? He has destroyed all we have so carefully built. May he burn in hell. Ha! I suppose I have my wish already.
Caldwell arrived on Wednesday evening, and though tired from the week-long journey from Connecticut, was eager to see one of our "home-grown" Louisiana monsters. It took a good deal of persuasion to convince him he would not be best served to hunt in a state of exhaustion.
Oddly, he had with him a Sparks! "Researching the competition,"he told me as he displayed its fine form over breakfast the following morning. It is a firearm with exceptional range, which we would see demonstrated in the most horrifying manner that evening. We were on the grounds with Finch's 14. I spoke of our plans when he suddenly became agitated, and disappeared, and they are all dead. He found a sniper's perch and picked them off, one by one. He must have had a number of weapons on him, perhaps a scope. I could not move quickly enough to his location. Eleven died where they fell, 3 more did not survive being moved to the infirmary. He is an excellent shot.
Having destroyed our humble army - easy, unarmed targets as they were - he disappeared. However, the fire in the armory shed last night tells me he is not gone. I must speak to the staff now, they are already beginning to ask uncomfortable questions, and then there is the matter of Lynch. But that is subject for another letter.
p.
