SPORTING RIFLES AND THEIR USE 339 



bound to be influenced by habit and by previous 

 experience, and, as a matter of fact, during the late 

 'seventies, the 'eighties, and the early 'nineties, when 

 most of my big-game hunting was done, the sporting 

 smokeless-powder, small-bore rifle had not come into 

 use, and, even in the later years mentioned, had 

 hardly been invented. Man, being a creature of 

 custom, will probably do better shooting with a 

 slightly inferior weapon to which he is thoroughly 

 habituated than with a more up-to-date rifle to the 

 weight and mechanism of which he is a stranger. 

 Therefore my remarks on this point may be freely 

 discounted. Yet there are some points in this con- 

 nection to which I wish to draw attention. 



First, as to the respective killing powers of the two 

 kinds of rifle in question. 



Here, however, we must interpolate a general 

 principle. 



The object of every true sportsman who is a 

 hunter of big-game is, or should be, to arm himself 

 with the most accurate and deadly weapon that he 

 can obtain for the purpose. To kill a wild animal 

 cleanly and quickly entails no cruelty ; but to wound 

 and then lose the creature is not only an annoyance to 

 the hunter, but, in effect, is an act of cruelty to the 

 hunted. Therefore, although it cannot be altogether 

 done away with, do we desire to reduce this possibility 

 of wounding to an absolute minimum. The hardest 

 killing and most powerful rifle is therefore not only 

 the best, but the most humane. With this general 

 object in view, then, let us further consider the point. 



The small-bore cordite-powder rifle of necessity 

 projects a smaller, lighter bullet. Therefore does it 

 lose, to some extent, in shock on impact, by reason 



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