THE RIFLE ON GAME AT REST. 271 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE RIFLE ON GAME AT REST. 



THE great difficulty in killing any sort of game with 

 a single ball is that a miss is as good as a mile. To 

 remedy this the scattering principle of the shot-gun 

 was introduced. And the success of this depends 

 upon a principle directly opposite to the fundamental 

 principle of the rifle; to wit, that a miss is as good as a 

 hit. That is, the true center of the charge never need 

 exactly cover the game. And as a matter of fact it 

 probably does not once in a hundred times, even when 

 the gun is the hands of the very best shots. 



The consequence of this is that the same aim that 

 with a shot-gun would suffice to kill a thousand suc- 

 cessive pigeons at twenty yards would not suffice to 

 even touch one out of a thousand at twenty yards 

 with a rifle-ball. 



This fact is soon learned by a little target-practice 

 with the rifle. The beginner finds that mere ap- 

 proximation, however near, will not do. Absolute 

 accuracy only will suffice. But the beginner when he 

 becomes a skilled target-shot finds when he first tries 

 his rifle on game that the difference between shooting at 

 game and at a target is as antipodal as the poles of the 

 universe. The confidence with which he sets out to 

 hunt is soon engulfed in amazement at the almost 

 unappeasable appetite that lead exhibits for empty 

 space. And this is the case upon any game. I have 



