CHAPTER XVI 



SPORTING RIFLES AND THEIR USE 



WHAT sporting rifle to get and how to use the par- 

 ticular rifle when it is obtained in the pursuit of 

 wild game, are naturally questions of great practical 

 interest and importance to all deer-stalkers and big- 

 game hunters. They are questions, moreover, which 

 no man, however experienced, can venture to dog- 

 matize about, because they are partly matters of 

 personal predilection and experience, as well as, to 

 some extent, particular circumstance. 



Therefore it is not my intention in this chapter to 

 attempt to lay down any hard-and-fast laws on the 

 subject of sporting rifles and their use, even if I felt 

 competent to do so. 



The best school in which to learn how to use a 

 rifle in the field is the school of experience. In fact, 

 there is no other. But the fees are high. Therefore 

 it may be useful for those of us who have been 

 through its mill to record the individual results 

 obtained and the conclusions arrived at for what 

 they may be worth to younger generations of would- 

 be riflemen. It is for them to glean some profit, 

 so far as the vicarious process is possible, from the 

 experience of others, if they care to make the attempt. 



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