324 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



lessness of the sportsmen themselves, in not taking the 

 trouble to use a suitable bullet, it was in some cases also 

 attributable to the makers, who had failed to supply 

 ammunition suited to the circumstances. 



The medium -bore cordite rifle being a weapon of an 

 "all-round" type, suitable for use against heavy thick- 

 skinned game as well as animals of a lighter and soft- 

 skinned type, it is necessary to use at least two kinds of 

 bullets in it (i) penetrative, which is represented by the 

 solid nickel-covered bullet, and (2) expanding, which are 

 of various types (soft -nosed "peg" hollow -pointed 

 " capped " split, etc.). The latter, moreover, include bullets 

 of greater and lesser degrees of expansive power, to which 

 may be added the still lighter expansive bullet for use on 

 the smaller harmless animals. 



From these various kinds of bullets the manufacturers as 

 well as the sportsmen should be able to choose a projectile 

 suited to the work it is intended to do ; and if they misuse 

 a too penetrative bullet on a charging tiger or lion, or a too 

 expansive one against the head of an elephant, they must 

 take the consequences. 



That manufacturers are often as much to blame as sports- 

 men in this connection is proved by the absurd advertise- 

 ments one sees describing the powers of some of these new 

 rifles. There is so much effort made to prove that they 

 possess greater penetration and striking power than the 

 old black - powder weapons that, manufacturer leading 

 sportsman astray, they both forget that there is other 

 game beside pachyderms, and fall into such absurdities as 

 gauging a rifle's usefulness by its power to punch holes 

 in an armour plate ! And so the tale proceeds. Off goes 

 the hunter, armed with some theoretical paragon of a rifle 

 guaranteed to penetrate so many inches of steel plate but 

 of which he knows uncommonly little certain of its 

 marvellous effect against all and every kind of big game, 

 and imagining that all he has to do is to press trigger, 



