CHAPTER III 

 RIFLES AND GUNS 



Rifles and guns completely absorb the attention of 

 the sportsman when he is buying his outfit, and are, 

 perhaps, one of the most difficult questions for him 

 to settle to his own satisfaction, inasmuch as he hears 

 and reads so many opposite opinions. Every maker 

 has some speciality that will kill or stop every sort 

 of game, sometimes small bores, often medium, and 

 seldom large ; and the matter becomes so bewildering 

 that the intending purchaser never really knows 

 whether he has got a real stopper or not. 



Rifles Large and Small. — In choosing a rifle 

 two questions have to be considered : first, the kind 

 and size of game one expects to get ; and secondly, 

 whether one is a good sportsman and does not wish 

 to inflict unnecessary suffering by wounding large 

 beasts which get away and die a lingering death. 



If the hunter is such a good shot that a bullet can 



be placed every time in the right spot, then bore does 



not count, for a pea rifle will kill just as well as a 



•600 bore ; but he never is. Pulling at the wrong 



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