360 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



bore, the other a sporting Mannlicher. I commenced 

 with twenty or thirty shots from the '500 bore, the 

 heavier weapon, with the greater recoil, and did fairly 

 well. Then I took up the Mannlicher, and was much 

 puzzled to find that for the first few shots I fired 

 persistently some inches to the left. I thought at 

 first the sighting of the rifle was defective ; but after 

 a time the tendency to shoot to the left disappeared. 



The explanation of Purdey's man an experienced 

 hand with rifles was that this tendency arose from 

 the difference in recoil of the two rifles. The muscles 

 of the arm and shoulder naturally and instinctively 

 resisted the recoil of the *500 bore ; and then in- 

 voluntarily continued for a time the same resistance 

 with the lighter rifle that had less recoil. The result 

 of this would naturally be, when firing from the right 

 shoulder, to throw the muzzle of the lighter weapon 

 slightly to the left, until the muscles had accom- 

 modated themselves to the lighter recoil. After a 

 few shots the muscles again involuntarily and auto- 

 matically accommodated themselves to the altered 

 circumstances, and hence the rifle ceased to be 

 thrown to the left. If this explanation be correct, as 

 I believe it was, then the incident described affords 

 an interesting illustration of how the grip of human 

 hand and pressure of shoulder naturally adapt them- 

 selves, by practice, to the 'jump' or 'flip' of a rifle, 

 and are better mechanism than any inanimate rest 

 for accurate rifle-shooting. The incident and its 

 explanation also illustrate the importance of shooting 

 in the field, as on the range, so far as possible with 

 the same rifle and with uniform ammunition. 



Now we come to the position. The Bisley rifleman 

 thinks a great deal of position. But for the deer- 



