234 TOUR IN SUTHERL AN DSHIRE. 



destroyed. Added to this, guns and rifles are now so well 

 made as to be much more destructive weapons than formerly. 

 No reasonable person would wish to be able to kill a bird at 

 a greater distance than his fowling-piece now enables him to 

 do ; and a modern rifle carries correctly quite as far as 

 a man can see clearly enough to aim with nicety at a small 

 object. 



In shooting with the rifle at large animals, such as deer, a 

 good-sized ball is, for several reasons, a very great desidera- 

 tum. In the first place, the larger the ball the greater is its 

 force. A ball of 11 bore smashes through a substance which 

 would stop the ball of a pea-rifle, unless the latter is aimed 

 at and strikes some vital part. The animal struck carries it 

 away, and either pines wounded for a long time, or dies in 

 some concealed place, where it is lost to the shooter. Also, 

 the wound made by a small ball will frequently close up 

 again immediately, enabling the deer to escape ; or the ball, 

 instead of breaking a bone, is stopped by it : and it should 

 be remembered, that when you shoot at an animal, the most 

 merciful way of doing so is with a weapon which kills instead 

 of merely wounding it. Good single-barrelled rifles can 

 easily be procured ; but to get a trustworthy double rifle the 

 sportsman must go to- one of the first-rate gunmakers, and 

 pay a first-rate price. By altering the sights of a single- 

 barrelled rifle any person, knowing the commonest elements 

 of shooting, can make it carry correctly a hundred yards or 

 more ; but a double rifle, if the axis of the two barrels are 

 not exactly parallel, can only be adjusted by taking it to 

 pieces again and again, until the barrels shall lie so evenly 

 together, that at a hundred yards the two balls strike within 

 an inch of each other. As it is almost impossible for the 

 most skilful gunsmith to join the two barrels so correctly 

 at first as to attain this result, he has to try them repeatedly, 

 taking his work to pieces again and again, until he is quite 

 .satisfied with his performance. All this must, of course, add 

 to the expense ; but it is money well expended if, after all, a 

 double-barrelled rifle does shoot perfectly true. Another 

 important point which should be borne in mind with regard 

 to rifles is, that those of very small bore do not carry so true 

 for long shots as larger ones. 



It is difficult to lay down any specific rule as to the most 

 effective size of small shot for shooting game and wild fowl. 

 Some sportsmen strenuously assert that one particular 



