48 SPORTSMAN'S HAND BOOK: 



might be styled indestructible. He was hunting on the 

 side of a mountain in winter. Snow-slide hunter caught 

 in a tree-top gun keeps on found next spring nothing 

 Jeft but the bore, but it slew that very day three deer and a 

 grizzly. Next week a man came in from hunting and sat 

 his repeater up in the corner. Servant came in to dust the 

 room with feather duster accidentally hit gun chamber 

 thereof twisted so badly had to be sent to factory. Such 

 experiences as these naturally cause a man to ask what he 

 can depend on. 



Now, as to accuracy, it makes a vast difference in my 

 estimation whether the point-blank of a rifle is in inverse 

 ratio to the drop of stock. A crescent-shaped butt with 

 bottle-nosed cartridge, 450 to the peck, will make a fearful 

 hole in an animal if the stock is properly checked. The 

 checking of the animal depends largely on this latter. 

 But after all it is the shock that kills. Ask any man who 

 has had a current from a Brush machine sent through him. 

 The coming gun is the one having the greatest amount of 

 shock in it. A sort of paralytic or apoplectic shock. We 

 all know how this acts on humanity, why should it not act 

 similarly on animals. True they (the animals) might run 

 some after being hit, but it would be an erratic, short- 

 lived flight. 



In the center-fire cartridges the bearing surface of the 

 ball when impinging on the twist naturally suffer an appre- 

 ciable loss of motion caused by the fulminate being placed 

 too far back of the magazine, consequently the upset is 

 reached before the breech-block can escape. Such being 

 the case, it would seem highly important that the butt-plate 

 which interferes with the prompt action of the "neck" 

 should be narrowed to a point where the groove will barely 

 miss the shoulder. Otherwise derangement of sight will 

 ensue and the approximate curve of the bullet will be 



