THE RIFLE. 549 



make accurate shooting at all ranges. But if you misjudge your 

 distance at all, or even if* you know it and have not time to elevate 

 your back sight to its proper height, you will certainly either shoot 

 over or under your game. With a short range rifle proportioned 

 as we have described, the drop of the ball, owing to its great veloci- 

 ty, is so little, there is absolutely no judging of distance required. 

 Whether you are at twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five or one hundred 

 yards, all you have to do is to draw a little coarser bead the farther 

 off your game is. Practice will soon show you how much. Your 

 ball should not deviate more than a couple of inches above or be- 

 low, and this does not exceed the limit of accuracy heretofore laid 

 down. 



The faults of modern American breech-loading rifles intended 

 for sporting use are : i — not large or heavy enough projectile to 

 make a disabling wound on an animal as large as an old buck deer. 

 2 — not enough velocity of ball, owing to too little powder being 

 used, and too great friction resuUing from an unnecessarily quick 

 twist. The muzzle-loading hunting rifles that were made twenty 

 or thirty years since avoided the second of these faults. Their 

 calibre was smaller than we should now use ; but the reason was, 

 that in those days a hunter had to prepare his own ammunition, 

 and he liked to make it go as far as possible. There is one other 

 point that deserves mention. Shall we choose a single loading 

 rifle, or a repeater, that carries a magazine of cartridges ? Now, 

 it is very clear that there are many advantages in a repeater, like 

 the Winchester or the new Evans rifle, and the only question is, 

 whether there are any disadvantages, due to the greater compli- 

 cation of the weapon, sufficient to counterbalance the admitted 

 advantages. 



Mr. Omohundro, of Virginia, better known as " Texas Jack," 

 has strongly recommended the last edition of the Winchester 

 rifle. The earlier ones were very apt to get out of order at criti- 

 cal moments, their pet vice being the tilting of the ball just as it 

 entered the breech, whence arose jammings and rammings. Apart 

 from this, they were most pleasant and handy tools. The ease 

 with which this arm is loaded and fired, almost takes it out of the 

 category of " arms of precision," and reduces it to that of the slug- 

 carrying " scatter gun." It is a very good deer gun, but for griz- 



