226 FRANK forester's FIELD SPOliTS, 



mittcd oil the prairies, since it has been rendered current, and 

 its vaUie proved by British officers and sportsmt;n, especially by 

 mv old tViend and school-fellow, Charles Augustus Murray, 

 whose exploits with his double-barrelled ounce-ball rifle, still 

 survive among the Red-skins of the far West, having gained 

 him as wide a celebrity there, as his clever fictions have pro- 

 cured i'ov him in the civilized world. 



I am well aware that the lines I have last penned, will, iu 

 all probability, call down upon my head a burst of dissent, per- 

 haps of anathemas, from the gents who make elaborate striiigs 

 of half, and perhaps quarter inches, from the rest, or even off- 

 hand, with ponderous pea rifles, fitted with i}atcnt loading muz- 

 zles, telescope sights, and all the last improvements of the Im- 

 proved American Rifle. I am aware that these amateurs make 

 ■ marvellous shooting at the target ; but I know also that target 

 shooting with ball is as different from Field or Forest shooting, 

 as Pigeon shooting from a trap is different from game shooting. 



For the former, in both instances, iron nerve, good eyes, and 

 long practice, are all that can be desired, — for the latter much 

 more is wanting ; and there are hundreds of men, who would 

 shoot almost nowhere at a target, who shall beat your crack string 

 shot, year in and year out, into fits, in the woods or on the 

 prairie, as also may be predicated with regard to the traji. ■ 



The patent loading muzzle is of course out of the question as 

 regards war, or the chase, unless in still hunting, where a man 

 expects to get but one or two shots a day. Such intricate and new- 

 fangled apparatus, can rarely be put to account in real service. 



The two-grooved rifle, with the belted ball — the belt fitting 

 the grooves — by which the application of force to the bullet in 

 loading, and the consequent wear and tear of the muzzle, are 

 rendered unnecessary, is a most beautiful and effective weapon, 

 even in the ordinary cheap form of it, which is carried by her 

 Majesty's Rifle Regiments, and the flank-men of the Light 

 Infantry companies. 



Its range is prodigious ; and I have been credibly informed, 

 by those who should have known, that the practice of the Rifle 



