NOTES ON RIFLES AND AMMUNITION 409 



A sloping standard has the advantage of showing up the 

 silver line, but in a bright light this has a tendency to ' blurr ' 

 and prevent a fine bead being taken. It is as well under these 

 circumstances to black the standard, and upon occasions the 

 foresight ; this may be done very simply by smoking them 

 with a wax match. Foresights should be let in from the front 

 and fixed with a small screw, so that they can easily be removed 

 and a different form of sight inserted when required. 



A spare iron foresight and two or three ivory ones should 

 be fitted to each rifle. 



A very useful and convenient form of night sight is an 

 ordinary iron one having at the rear end a small disc covered 

 with white enamel or luminous paint (see fig. 22), and so ar- 

 ranged that this disc can, when required, be raised in front of 

 the ordinary bead. If properly constructed and placed at the 

 correct angle, it can be seen well when the ordinary sight would 

 be quite invisible. 



Telescope sights are now made with elevating screws, which 

 enable the necessary elevations to be quickly obtained. For 

 stalking and deliberate shots the telescope is most useful, but 

 it is necessary to have the eye-piece fitted on a spring slide and 

 made sufficiently large to prevent injury to the shooter's eye in 

 case of the recoil being heavy ; but these sights for rifles firing 

 heavy charges cannot be reccmmended. 



Many sportsmen complain that with Express rifles (in par- 

 ticular), and not infrequently with other rifles, they shoot over 

 their game at short ranges, an error which they attribute to 

 the ' high sighting ' of their rifles. Sometimes this explanation 

 of their shooting over their game is the correct one ; but fre- 

 quently the error is caused by the shooter, when firing a snap- 

 shot at an animal moving across him at a short range, taking a 

 very full foresight, not having sufficient time to get his eye 

 down to the level of the backsight, and draw as fine a bead as 

 he would have done had he taken a deliberate shot. 



But no doubt some rifles are ' over-sighted,' and if so it is 

 partly the fault of the gunmakers and partly the fault of the 



