200 MY SOMALI BOOK 



always standing quietly broadside on ? While the 

 buck, too, has generally forgotten to have its bull's- 

 eye painted on. 



What the respective chances are of killing, wound- 

 ing, or missing a buck with the Sherwood rifle at 300 

 yards I leave my reader to determine. If, after con- 

 sidering the data I have given, all of which he can 

 verify for himself, he is honestly able to justify such a 

 shot, then he must possess powers beyond any rifleman 

 I have met or hope to meet. For myself, I consider 

 150 yards, as I have said, to be the Sherwood's limit ; 

 inside that range it will kill where a Mannlicher would 

 occasional^ fail, for if the energy of the Sherwood 

 capped bullet is small, none of it is wasted. And its 

 high trajectory renders it an extremeh^ safe weapon in 

 inhabited country where the use of a high velocity 

 rifle would be dangerous. 



That it is necessary to insist upon the limitations 

 of these miniature rifles is proved by the published 

 accounts of what has been done with them at long 

 ranges. The Sherwood is credited, for instance, with 

 a red deer stag at 355 yards ; I can only say that the 

 exploit is not one I should be proud of. Another 

 excellent little rifle of the same type, but rather less 

 powerful than the Sherwood, is Greener's -310. An 

 advertisement in a sporting paper not long ago quoted 

 a letter from South Africa which stated that five spring- 

 bok had been shot with this rifle at average distances 

 of 400 to 500 yards ! As at this distance an error 

 of fifty yards either way would mean a miss by feet not 

 inches, the hitting at all of a comparatively small 

 animal like a springbok would be little better than a 



