GOOD-BYE SERGOIT 247 



before it is reversed and driven forward. Failing in this, 

 failing by only half an inch to pull the bolt quite back, 

 the empty shell is at once jammed back into the chamber 

 on top of the full one rising up from the magazine below. 

 This causes an immediate and very bad jamming of the 

 piece. You constantly hear complaints of bolt guns jam- 

 ming when rapid fire is needed. I am convinced the fault 

 then lies not with the gun or its action, which is quite 

 automatic, but with the excited manipulator who, in his 

 hurry to put another cartridge in, has not taken time or 

 care to throw the old, used, cartridge out. I know this was 

 so in my own case, when in America I first began to use the 

 Mannlicher instead of the Winchester, and I cannot accuse 

 myself of carelessness in the use of firearms. I lost a great 

 moose in that way once, and a good mouflon too, in Sardinia. 

 One American rifle I could, however, strongly commend 

 to all going on sefari. That is a .25 single-shot Stevens. 

 The most perfect toy rifle I know, a long pistol barrel, 

 with an adjustable skeleton stock, the whole weighing 

 only 3! Ibs. Nothing can be more accurate up to 75 yards, 

 and it is quite beautifully sighted. Have the high foresight 

 with a small bead, under a heavy protecting steel concave 

 protector (the usual sight for this rifle) and a peep back 

 sight. For shooting guinea fowl, and wild fowl generally, 

 there can be nothing better. A twelve bore makes noise 

 and the cartridges are heavy. Guinea fowl, a quite impor- 

 tant article of diet, are often very hard to reach with a smooth 

 bore gun. They will keep running at about 45 yards in 

 front of you, and on the ground at that distance take a lot 

 of killing. Then there are many other birds shy of approach. 

 The bustards, the lesser, and the greater, a big rifle tears, 

 and to get within small shot range is often impossible. 

 For monkeys and many small things that you will want to 

 get, use the Stevens. On no account burden yourself 

 with one of these much-advertised .22 Winchester repeaters 



