ON SHOOTING. 199 



I had almost forgotten a few words of advice on 

 sighting the rifle. Avoid the deep and narrow V, obliterating 

 most of the object. Choose a very shallow and wide notch, 

 and let your foresight be the smallest you can see in a bad 

 light. The notch should have a vertical platinum line down 

 its centre, and the foresight a rear surface of silver solder. 

 Enamel is even better, but is too easily knocked off. The 

 aperture backsight is the easier to use, in the form of a ring 

 with fairly large opening. The pierced disc sold as an 

 aperture sight is useless except on the target. The aperture 

 sight can be dovetailed behind the bolt -head in the Mauser 

 rifle, or fitted to a " claw " above the bolt. The best 

 foresight for use in conjunction is a small bead on a stem, 

 protected by a steel or brass hoop. The telescope sight 

 you should not use so long as your eye remains sufficiently 

 elastic to focus without it. 



Learn how to " gralloch " a stag yourself : it is 

 interesting and may be useful in the event of separation. 

 Get the stalker to show you how to knot the gullet, scrape 

 up the tallow, wash the " poch-buie," etc. Should you 

 be alone and have to leave a stag a night on the hill, tie a 

 piece of paper to his horn, spread some grass on him, weighted 

 with a stone, to keep off vermin, and bend his head under 

 him on the left side, before the neck stiffens, for it is thus 

 he must be arranged on the pony next day. 



You will learn more about stalking in your first day 

 on the forest than I could tell you on paper in a week, 

 especially if accompanied by a stalker possessed of the 

 knowledge of the old school minus its autocratic methods. 

 Some of these older men used positively to delight in refusing 

 to disclose their reasons for orders and acts incomprehensible 

 to the learner. They loved doing things in their own way, 

 unopposed and unquestioned : their " gentleman," poor 

 soul, was regarded — no doubt often rightly — as a nuisance 

 till the actual shot was to be taken, and even then he was 

 often handicapped by his attendant, or rather his master, 

 inserting his own person into the one position from which 

 this was possible. Deer were less plentiful, shooters limited 

 in number, and content, in the Victorian manner, to leave 

 details to employes. The stalker was credited with omniscience, 



