116 MANUAL FOB YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



It is therefore, at best, a weapon which can only be used 

 effectively at one, known and given, distance; and is 

 utterly useless at any other range, until the difference 

 shall have been calculated, and the machinery rearranged 

 an operation requiring time, and, of course, utterly in- 

 consistent with field service. 



Of breech-loading pieces, we will say that they are the 

 great desideratum of military gunnery ; that the superior- 

 ity of them to muzzle-loading arms is greater than that 

 of percussion to flint-and-steel locks ; perhaps as great as 

 that of musketry to archery. 



For sporting, however, the gain is not so great. No 

 breech-loading rifle has probably ever been made, with 

 which the best and most rapid marksman could fire two 

 shots, loading for the second, at one animal running at 

 speed away from him, or across him unless it were, once 

 in a thousand times, on a perfectly open and level plain, at 

 a very large object much less could bring down two 

 animals in quick succession, leaping up and taking flight 

 at the same moment. 



In point of rapidity of firing, therefore, for sporting 

 purposes, no breech-loading rifle can ever equal, much less 

 surpass, a finely made, accurately-sighted, double-barrelled 

 hunting rifle, such as are turned out by Purday, Lang, 

 Moore and Gray, and other London makers. 



The obstacles to the success of all former breech-load- 

 ing arms have been First, the difficulty of so arranging 

 the juncture of the chamber with the barrel, as to prevent 

 the escape of the gaseous ignited fluid, at the moment of 

 discharge. If this subtle fluid escape, it will speedily eat 



