346 



THE SPORTING RIFLE. 



front. The half-cocking of the ham- 

 mer causes the chambers to revolve 

 to such an extent as to place the next 

 chamber in the right place, and there 

 it remains till the hammer is let 

 down and brought up again to half- 

 cock. Some of the plans are carried 

 out so that there must be a cocking 

 with the thumb in every case ; others, 

 again, are made to revolve, cocked, 

 and discharged by the action of the 

 finger on the trigger; while a third 

 set may be used in either way at 

 discretion. It is manifest that where 

 great rapidity is required, as in the 

 defence of one man against several, 

 a larger number of shots may be 

 fired in a given time by the second 

 mode than where the thumb has to 

 be used to raise the hammer, but 

 from the stress upon the finger the 

 aim is not so good; and if a revolver 

 is used for sporting purposes it should 

 not, therefore, be made on this plan. 

 The objections to the revolver as 

 a sporting rifle are, that the re- 

 coil and escape are both extremely 

 annoying to the shooter, while the 

 accuracy of aim is not at all to be 

 compared with a muzzle-loader, or 

 with the best kinds of breech-loaders. 

 The cause of this inferiority is to 

 be looked for partly in the great 

 escape which takes place, and which 

 weakens the force of the explosion 

 before the ball reaches the muzzle, 

 and partly in the imperfect adapta- 

 tion to the barrel of each chamber 

 in succession. The revolving Pistol 

 performs much better in proportion 

 to its length than the Rifle, because 



