358 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



of light will this cast. It can be screwed in through 

 a hole. 



If, however, you prefer a notch, you need no horns 

 around it. Cut a notch with a knife only a line or 

 two deep in the center of the bar, keep well rusted 

 with iodine and ink, and you have all the advantages 

 of the buckhorn, with its disadvantages greatly modi- 

 fied. Iodine and ink are in fact indispensable for 

 keeping any back sight of iron in proper order, and 

 should be frequently applied; the iodine a day or two 

 before the ink. But give the straight bar a fair trial 

 and you will not want notches. 



Elevating-sights upon a rifle are very prone to tempt 

 one into using them where the level sight only should 

 be used. For this reason many hunters will not have 

 them upon a rifle at all. This, however, is unwise. 

 The remedy is not to discard them, but learn to use 

 them properly. Just so surely as .the game is beyond 

 the natural point blank of your rifle, so surely must 

 the rifle-ball rise in its flight to reach it. There are 

 four ways of making it do this: 



ist. Sighting rifle to " artificial point blank." 



2d. Taking a fuller view of front sight, or, as it is 

 called, "a coarse bead." 



3d. Holding high on game. 



4th. Elevating the back sight. 



The great trouble with all these methods is that of 

 all long-range shooting the calculation of distance. 

 The artificial point-blank is no better than any 

 elevated sight except in requiring no adjustment. 

 Unless the game happens to be at the right distance 

 it has no advantages. And inside of that distance it 

 is as much a nuisance as level sights are beyond their 

 proper distance. 



