404 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



required ; but perhaps as good a guide as any is to take the 

 diagrams made by the winning rifles at the trials of sporting 

 rifles before the editor of the ' Field.' For an ordinary Express 

 it may be accepted that a double "450 firing ten shots, right and 

 left barrel alternately, making a 4-inch group, viz. all the ten 

 shots in a 4-inch square, is a very fine shooting weapon, and 

 that one putting all its ten shots into a 6-inch at a hundred 

 yards is quite up to the average. 



Do not depend upon diagrams shown as the record of 

 the shooting of a rifle. The only satisfactory plan is to go to 

 the maker's grounds and see the rifle fired, to fire it yourself, 

 or, if that is not convenient, get a competent friend to go and 

 see the diagrams made. Then, again, it is very desirable to have 

 the sights cut to suit your own style of shooting, for it is not 

 at all unusual for two good marksmen firing the same rifle to 

 make a considerable difference in elevation on the target at, 

 say, 100 yards range. 



Recoil Heelplate. — It is not a bad plan to have recoil heel- 

 plates fitted to all rifles from -450 to 4 bores. They save the 

 shoulder very much when firing large charges. See that the 

 rubber is properly smoothed and varnished, saas to get rid of 

 the clinging feeling these heelplates otherwise have. 



Spare Weapons. — In going for any length of time upon a 

 sporting expedition, it is always well to have reserve rifles which , 

 should be as nearly as possible duplicates of those in the regular 

 battery in weight, mount, sighting, &c., so that no difference is 

 noticed by the sportsman should he have to fall back upon his 

 reserve. You may never want them, but if, when you are in 

 the game district, hundreds of miles up country, you smash or 

 injure the rifle you are depending upon, you will then fully 

 appreciate the advantage of having a reserve. It is a very 

 easy thing to break the stock of or otherwise damage a rifle, 

 or it may even be lost, and if you have no others to fall back 

 upon the sporting trip must be spoiled, or at any rate seri- 

 ously hampered. 



A fair battery for an expedition to Africa would be a 



