298 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



made for motion. All the conditions, too, are constantly 

 varying. 



The best way to obviate the first difficulty is to raise 

 the rifle slowly, or rather deliberately, running your eye 

 along it and catching a full clear view of the sights 

 as it comes up, concentrating your attention upon the 

 sights instead of upon the game. When shooting a 

 shot-gun the game is the principal object of vision. 

 One scarcely sees even the gun-barrel, and almost never 

 sees the sight upon it. The tendency to do the same 

 with the rifle is very strong, and in one who is a 

 good wing-shot with the shot-gun is at first almost 

 irresistible. But nothing is more certain to cause 

 a miss at any considerable distance. Suppose a man 

 with a shot-gun can average nine rabbits out of ten 

 shots, all running, and all pure snap-shots. Suppose 

 the same man can fire a Winchester at the rate of 

 two shots a second at a standing mark, shooting 

 close enough to place nine balls out of ten in an 

 eight-inch ring at twenty yards pure snap-shooting 

 with the rifle. How many times would the same 

 man hit rabbits inside of twenty yards, the rabbits 

 all running and the rifle being fired in the same man- 

 ner as at the eight-inch ring, or fired in the same 

 manner as the shot-gun was fired to hit nine rabbits 

 out of ten ? The answer to this problem as given by 

 actual experiment is amazing even to one who knows 

 the vast difference between shot and a bullet at a sitting 

 mark. I believe I understate rather than overstate it 

 when I say he would not touch one rabbit in ten, on 

 an average of one hundred shots or more. When at 

 a hundred yards or over, or when at only fifty yards and 

 running fast, the same aim that with a shot-gun would 

 kill fifty successive quail on the wing will not suffice 



