SPORTING RIFLES AND THEIR USE 349 



Apart from other considerations, both the nature 

 of the country and the kind of game to be hunted 

 may largely determine the choice of a rifle. Where 

 the game frequent open plains or high mountain 

 ranges free from trees and cover, the special features 

 of the smokeless small-bore rifle at once possess far 

 greater value than in woodland country. Thus, in 

 such sport as wild reindeer stalking on open Norway 

 fjelds, or when hunting such game as the prong-horn 

 antelope of western America, the antelope of the 

 African plains, the black buck of India, the European 

 chamois, and the different species of wild goat and 

 wild sheep of Asia and of the Rockies, such as ibex, 

 and oves montana, ammon, and poli, as well as in 

 Scotch deer- stalking, many of the conditions inherent 

 in woodland sport are absent. The animals in ques- 

 tion are not dangerous, nor are they, as a rule, 

 encountered suddenly and at close quarters. The 

 shot is usually a more quiet and deliberate affair, 

 often at fairly long range, and after a more or less 

 lengthy stalk or stealthy approach. 



Under these circumstances the flatter trajectory 

 and more accurate shooting of the smokeless small- 

 bore, as compared with the black-powder express, 

 at distances over 150 yards, are of the greatest 

 possible advantage to the sportsman. Exact calcula- 

 tion of range becomes a matter of minor importance, 

 and the game can be killed up to distances of 300 and 

 even 400 yards with the more modern weapon in a 

 manner and with a reasonable certainty undreamt of 

 in the days of older rifles of lower velocity and higher 

 trajectory. 



Also the quick double-shot occasionally so useful, 

 and even necessary, in woodland hunting is not 



