352 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



a weapon the latter may be. A double cordite rifle 

 requires to be specially manufactured in order to resist 

 nitro-powders. 



While on the subject of weapons for big-game 

 hunting, a word on smooth-bores may not be out of 

 place. For immediate shock at close quarters there 

 is nothing like a smooth-bore, say a No. 12 bore, 

 firing a solid spherical bullet. There is no question 

 here of expansion of the bullet, but the immediately 

 paralyzing effects of a large solid bullet at close 

 quarters, say 50 yards or under, is undoubted ; for 

 wild-boar driven to the sportsman in thick cover, or 

 even for any larger game, at close quarters, no better 

 weapon can be chosen. It is fairly handy, and gives 

 the opportunity of a quick double-shot. 



The drawback of a smooth-bore, and it is a serious 

 one, is that for ranges over 50 yards it cannot be 

 relied on, either for accuracy or force. Even 50 yards 

 is a long range for this weapon. It is not, in fact, 

 a weapon of precision. Therefore it can only be 

 regarded as supplementary to a rifle, and for the special 

 close ranges I have mentioned. 



Let us now sum up the general conclusions to be 

 arrived at. The lightest, handiest, and most accurate 

 rifle, as well as the cheapest, for all ordinary kinds of big- 

 game shooting is undoubtedly, then, the single-barrel 

 cordite -powder magazine Lee-Enfield, Mannlicher, 

 Mauser, or suchlike. (Each civilized country seems 

 to have its own particular variety of this weapon.) 

 The fact of a powder being smokeless a point I 

 might have touched on earlier is of great importance 

 to the sportsman. He can better see the effect of his 

 shot, a second and following shots can be more quickly 

 fired, and where a dangerous animal at moderately 



