496 The Hunting Grounds 



once used a breech-loading gun or rifle will no more 

 think of going back to a muzzle-loader, than the crack 

 marksman at Hythe would return to old " Brown 

 Bess." 



Lang's breech-loading rifles have either three or 

 four broad grooves (I prefer the latter) ; and the 

 projectile used is of a cylindro-conical shape, very 

 similar to that used by General Jacobs, of the 

 Scinde Horse. With one of his double rifles, forty 

 bore, and 7i Ibs. in weight, a bull's-eye three inches 

 in diameter has been struck thirteen times in eighteen 

 shots, at a hundred yards, firing right and left barrels 

 alternately, and the other shots were all within four 

 inches from the centre. At three hundred yards, 

 bullet after bullet was put in the area of a foot 

 square, which is almost as close shooting as can be 

 got out of a double rifle. For great precision at long 

 distances, single ones must be used ; as in every double 

 rifle, where one sight has to serve, the barrels must 

 converge, consequently the lines of trajectory must 

 cross at some point, and although up to five hundred 

 yards the lateral deflection may not be very material, 

 they can never exhibit the precision of single barrels 

 at long distances. 



Mr. Westley Richards, of Birmingham, has in- 

 vented a breech-loader that has been highly approved 

 of by the authorities, and it is a most excellent weapon 

 either for military or sporting purposes, although the 



