THE EFFECT OF RECOIL UPON SHOOTING. 323 



passing along the barrel, and actually moves back- 

 ward before it escapes. But unless the charge of 

 powder be excessive, or the ball be very heavy in pro- 

 portion to its caliber, this backward motion will be so 

 directly in line with the axis of the bore of the rifle 

 that the ball will go as true to the line of the axis as 

 if the rifle had been solid as the eternal hills. On the 

 other hand, if the charge is excessive, or the ball very 

 heavy in proportion to the gun, and especially if both 

 these causes conjoin, two very different effects may 

 result. 



ist. The barrel may be thrown up or down, or to 

 one side, before the ball leaves it, so that the ball 

 starts into the air on a different line from that in which 

 the axis of the bore was held when the trigger was 

 pulled; but still always so exactly in the same direc- 

 tion, and so exactly to the same extent, that the effect 

 is precisely the same as if the gun had not moved a 

 particle, it being only necessary to arrange the sights 

 so that the axis of the bore will point the proper dis- 

 tance away from the mark. 



2d. The recoil may be so violent that the barrel is 

 thrown off irregularly, or not to exactly the same 

 place every time, so that the rifle will shoot wildly. 



The first of these effects is seen in many of our very 

 best rifles, and does not seem to interfere in the least 

 with their accuracy. The second is seen in many light 

 rifles that are overloaded, and especially in many of 

 the light pocket-pistols made with large caliber, heavy 

 ball, and heavy-charged cartridge. With some of 

 these last-mentioned rifles you cannot hit a deer at a 

 hundred yards more than once in five or six shots, and 

 with the pistols cannot hit a mule, much less a man, 

 at fifty yards in half a day. At the same time, either 



