BIG GAME SHOOTING ii 



the ball overbalances the other defects. An all-around 

 rifle is almost impossible and some sacritice must be 

 made." 



" Sacrifice for flat trajectory is not always a sacrifice 

 of accuracy, but often one in favor of it. Between 

 seventy-five and two hundred yards, the jilace where 

 most shots on the open ground fall, no black-powder 

 gun small enough to be carried with comfort can 

 make up in accuracy what it loses in curve of trajec- 

 tory as compared with the thirty-calibre nitro rifle. I 

 refer to the high velocity shell, and not to the smokeless 

 cartridges of the same strength as black powder. The 

 soft-nosed bullet, driven with the high-power nitro, is 

 the most killing form in which a ball of equal diameter 

 can be made for all-round work. Those of copper or 

 steel do not make a large enough hole for most shots 

 on the softer parts of the body." * 



For my part, I have always had a liking for a ball 

 rather heavy than light, especially for the larger ani- 

 mals, such as the bison and grizzly. It has always 

 seemed to me that the heavy ball was more sure to 

 prove quickly fatal, that the shock was much greater 

 and that there was more of the "knock-down and stay- 

 down" power, as it has been termed, in (he larger 

 ball. Roosevelt, if I remember rightly, used the forty- 

 five Winchester on grizzlies, and with tiiis weapon 

 dropped his first bear so dead that there was no 

 chance for a charge. 



Dr. George McAleer, in a paper on moose-shooting, 

 says that" for many years the makers of rifles persisted 

 in putting too much weight into them. Sportsmen cried 



* Van Dyke. 



