106 GAME. 



The trigger is of importance, though this, even more 

 than the sight, is a matter of habit. In common with 

 nearly all plains sportsmen and hunters, I use a hair 

 trigger, and can shoot accurately with no other. My 

 preference is for the old-fashioned Kentucky double-set 

 trigger. Some sportsmen use the single-set, and some 

 few the French double-set trigger. With this latter the 

 gun can only be brought to full cock after the trigger 

 is set, which peculiarity gives occasion for numerous 

 accidents and much bad language. 1 do not like either 

 of these triggers. 



There are among the soldiers some few successful 

 hunters and good shots; and this is a constant marvel to 

 me, since they are obliged to use the rifle-musket pro- 

 vided by the Ordnance Department, on which the sights 

 are so coarse that without moving the gun a man may 

 take apparently accurate sight on any object within a 

 horizontal radius of ten or fifteen feet, and which is so 

 hard on trigger that few men can pull it off with the 

 first joint of one finger. I have frequently cocked a 

 United States rifle-musket, turned it muzzle downwards 

 and dandled it, the whole weight of the gun being on 

 the trigger resting on my finger, without pulling it off. 

 With such a weapon and great economy in the expenditure 

 of cartridges, it is little wonder that the majority of the 

 army are as poor shots as can be found. The system on 

 which even the little practice that soldiers have is conducted 

 is as absurd as can well be imagined. To put a recruit 

 to firing off-hand at a target 300 yards away, when he 

 cannot, with a rest, hit a cracker box at twenty paces, 

 is as ridiculous a performance as could well be devised 

 by even the most impractical men. 



There is no sort of excuse for such sights as are put 

 on the rifle-musket. The apology for the hard trigger is, 

 that men would be more likely to shoot each other if the 

 triggers were easy a most weak and frivolous pretence 

 when taken in connection with the facts that a breech- 



