IN THE FAR IVEST. 15 



under, I have found the Express rifle to be the best of arms, as 

 I used the same sight, with the exception of its being a little 

 coarser, at objects 150 yards away that I did at those only 50, 

 and I found very little difference between my accuracy at both 

 ranges. The double Express has one fault, however, and that 

 is that both barrels do not shoot with equal precision, and, in 

 hunting, a person sometimes forgets which barrel he is shoot- 

 ing, so fails to allow for its peculiarities, and the result is often 

 a serious miss. A single-barrelled weapon is devoid of this 

 fault, but then it is not so convenient as the preceding, 

 especially where one desires to plant his bullets rapidly in the 

 body of a running animal that may get out of range before a 

 second ball can be inserted and aim taken. The former, even 

 with its failing, may therefore be said to be the better of the 

 two. I have found the Winchester magazine or repeating 

 rifle very convenient for general shooting, but that also had 

 its faults, not the least of which was that the bullet would 

 sometimes "tilt as soon as it reached the breech from the 

 magazine, at seemingly the most critical moment, and ere it 

 could be extricated and placed in its proper position the game 

 would probably be out of sight. I was compelled to leave a 

 buffalo hunt on two occasions on account of this serious defect 

 in its working, and I have several times lost a deer through 

 the same cause. Another fault that it possessed for shooting 

 heavy game was that the charge of powder it carried was too 

 small, and, as a matter of course, its driving power was not 

 great enough to give hard-killing animals a fatal wound ; but 

 it atoned in some respect for this by the rapidity with which 

 it could be fired when the magazine was full. I understand 

 that it has been improved very much recently, so the failings 

 I mention may exist no longer. 



Some excellent single-barrel sporting rifles are now made 

 both in Europe and the United States which are quite accurate 

 up to four or five hundred yards, and carry powder and ball 

 enough to kill a large animal within that distance. These 

 are very useful weapons for hunting the grizzly bear, moun- 

 tain-sheep, wild goats and buffalo, which are sometimes 

 rather difficult of near approach, and such denizens of the 



