48 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



pull is dangerous, since a lock which works so easily as at 

 two pounds pressure, or under, is liable to be put in mo- 

 tion by an unconscious touch, or even by a jar from a 

 touch or fall. In common, low-priced guns, such easiness 

 is invariably owing to weakness and deficiency, and always 

 augurs danger. 



To the beginner, this attention to the pull is compara- 

 tively a matter of indifference ; since his unmade finger 

 readily forms and adapts itself to any pull. Still, it is advi- 

 sable that he should early accustom himself to the true pull, 

 which he must one day adopt. At first, it is well to use 

 rather a hard-going gun, say of four or five pounds pressure, 

 but no higher. It is easy to come down from a heavy to a 

 light pull, but almost impossible to make the other ex- 

 change. 



The best shot, who was ever born, and who had been 

 accustomed for half a life to triggers of four pounds power, 

 would not be able, after daily practice for six months, to 

 shoot, up to his own force, with triggers of eight or ten 

 pounds. Both triggers of a double gun should, moreover, 

 yield to precisely the same pressure ; and, if a man desire 

 to shoot equally and evenly, all his guns, pistols, and rifles 

 should go accurately to the same pull, even his heavy 

 ducking guns stancheon or punt guns alone excepted, 

 which for reasons hereafter to be stated require a hard and 

 heavy hand : hair-triggers, for all field purposes, I utterly 

 eschew. If a rifleman cannot shoot close enough with a 

 four pound pull, he will not do so with a hair-trigger. 



More shots in the field are missed by too rapid, than 

 by too slow firing. Nervousness and excitement are, nine 



