CH. XXVII. DOUBLE-BARRELLED RIFLES. 123 



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 fre- 

 quently 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 remem- 

 bered, 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 

 axes 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 

 together 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 



