356 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



only a small front sight. The eye takes the center of 

 the barrel as naturally as a duck to water. The main 

 use of a back sight is to cut off the amount of the 

 front sight necessary to give the right horizontal 

 range. Getting the vertical range is mere child's 

 play compared with this. For doing this the high 

 sides or horns of the buckhorn or back sight are of 

 no use whatever. Their only use is to prevent reflec- 

 tion of light which would glimmer from the corners 

 of a notch in a flat-topped bar of iron. 



There is, however, one thing that these horns or 

 sides do most fully accomplish. They cut off and 

 partly destroy that clear and comprehensive view of 

 everything ahead that is so important for running 

 shots. They also actually delay one in " finding the 

 sights," instead of aiding one as many suppose who 

 have never tried anything else. The notch at the 

 bottom, by pinching out the view of the front sight, 

 prevents the eye from taking always the same exact 

 amount of front sight, especially when the sunlight 

 pours into the notch from in front or from behind. 

 Almost the entire trouble that old-sighted persons 

 have in shooting a rifle is with this notch, it being 

 almost impossible for them to see the. exact bottom 

 and shape of it so as to align the front sight with it. 

 Or as they express it, they "can't get the front sight 

 down into the notch." When one has good sight and 

 plenty of time first-class shooting can be done with 

 the buckhorn sight. Possibly for very fine target- 

 work it is a trifle better than any other open back 

 sight. 



But for quick shooting, and especially for good 

 horizontal-line shooting quickly cutting off the right 

 amount of front sight I long ago discovered that a 



