DIAGRAM OF RIFLE-BULLETS. 



179 



ever since. I ordinarily fire 12 drams of powder with it. This is as far 

 as man can go with powder and lead, if I except Sir Samuel Baker's half- 

 pound shell-rifle, the "Baby;" and though the above gun has failed me 

 once, as I will hereafter relate, it usually effectually settles any difterence 

 with an elephant, 



I have another favourite weapon, a No. 8 double rifle, firing 1 2 drams, 

 and weighing 1 7 lb., also by W. W. Greener. As may be imagined it has 

 enormous penetration, and is very accurate. I have stopped and killed 

 charging elephants with it, but I prefer the 4-bore for certain occasions 

 in elephant-shooting. The illustration shows the relative and actual sizes 

 of balls of the different calibres above mentioned. Gauge means the 

 number of spherical lead balls to the pound. 



Note. 



-Eley's No. 4 cartridges do not take a bullet of much over 3^ oz. A breech-loading 4-bore, 

 therefore, carries a bullet only a little larger than a muzzle-loading No. 5. 



Heavy-game rifles are, of course, only taken in hand when the game 

 is met ; the sportsman could not carry them far himself. Any man of 

 medium strength will find himself capable of handling a 17 to 20 -lb. rifle, 

 and of firing 12 drams with spherical ball, under the excitement of ele- 

 phant-shooting. As regards recoil, it is not serious with such weighty 

 guns. A friend of mine, the well-known " Smooth-bore " of Madras, once 

 fired at a tusker with my No. 8 double rifle and 1 2 drams. I usually keep 

 the left barrel of heavy pieces on haK-cock, as the jar to the left lock in 

 liring the right barrel is very great. " Smooth-bore " did not think of this, 

 and we afterwards found that the left barrel had also had its fling at the 

 tusker. My friend had fired 24 drams and a pair of 2-oz. bullets almost 

 simultaneously, but said he did not feel any severe recoil ! 



All rifles for elephants and heavy game should be double-barrelled, as 

 they have to be made as heavy if single to withstand the recoil, and the 

 danger of a miss-fire is a fatal objection to single-barrelled weapons. It 

 is evidently useless to have a light large-bore, as the recoil of such a weapon 



