328 THE SPOUTING RIFLE. 



above may be used, and any bore and method of rifling may 

 be adopted. 



Mr. Nock some years ago invented a new mode of adapting 

 the hammers of single rifles so as to keep them out of the 

 line of sight. This is effected by making them in the form 

 and in the situation of the trigger-guard, the nipple being 

 beneath the barrel. The plan, however, never became 

 general 



CHAPTER III. 



BREECH-LOADING RIFLES AND REVOLVERS APPLICABLE 

 TO SPORTING PURPOSES. 



GENERAL REMARKS PRINCE'S RIFLE TERRY AND CALISHER's RESTELL's 



LEITCH'S WESTLEY RICHARDS' THE LANCASTER NEEDHAM'S 



THE LEFAUCHEAUX BASTIN's GILBERT SMITH'S (AMERICAN) 



SHARPE'S REVOLVING RIFLES AND PISTOLS. 



THE same advantages which attend upon the breech-loading 

 shot-gun may also be claimed by the corresponding method, 

 when adopted for the rifle that is to say, the breech-loader 

 is more quickly loaded, more safe, and more easily cleaned. 

 There is, however, in some plans a considerable escape at the 

 breech, which will condemn them for sporting purposes, 

 while others have such an amount of recoil as to make them 

 most unpleasant to the shooter. I shall therefore omit those 

 which are guilty of these faults altogether. 



In correctness of shooting at sporting ranges I am quite 

 satisfied that the breech-loader will compete with the muzzle- 

 loader, or if there is any advantage in favour of the latter, 

 it is so trifling as to be practically of no value. If it is de- 

 sired to hit a turkey's head at 100 or 200 yards, it is quite 

 possible that the old tool is the best, but if at either of those 

 distances the sportsman is satisfied with putting his balls 

 into a three or four-inch bull's-eye, the new one is capable 

 of doing it, and has done it in my presence on several occa- 

 sions. The following are all the varieties which are at all likely 

 to be useful to the sportsman. 



