110 MANUAL FOK YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



distance ; and it may be assumed that within one hundred, 

 a ball of one hundred to the pound may be lodged in 

 a stationary mark, by a hand and eye used to such shoot- 

 ing, with such precision as to insure death to the object 

 aimed at. 



At this time the art of gunmaking of all kinds was 

 rude in the extreme, and the commonest of all prevailing 

 errors was the almost universal belief that extreme length 

 of barrel, whether in the rifle or fowling-piece, produced 

 corresponding length of flight to the missile. 



Rifle barrels were not unfrequently made of five feet 

 and upward in length, and the ball was made to take two 

 or more spiral perfect revolutions within the barrel previous 

 to its expulsion. The art was in its infancy ; and as no 

 pieces were made which could outshoot these old-fashioned 

 clumsy implements, while, from certain necessities of his 

 position and habits, certain peculiarities of his character 

 and temperament, the American backwoodsman became 

 perfect in the use of the weapon, the weapon itself came 

 to be regarded as perfect, and itself and the marksman 

 who wielded it, were regarded with mingled apprehension 

 and admiration. * " 



Still it was never adopted by any other nation, and 

 never has been used, in the true sense, as a sporting 

 weapon I mean as one used to kill game for a sport and 

 pastime, and not for the value of the game. Its extreme 

 inadaptibility to rapid firing, especially at things in quick 

 motion, its comparatively limited range, the want of weight 

 in its ball, which, unless it hits its object directly in a 

 vital spot, is of little more effect on large game than a 



