HUNTING-RIFLE, AND FLIGHT OF BALLS. 345 



rifle in the world in which the ball is seated in the 

 shell and started below the grooves. The finest shoot- 

 ing can be done only by detaching the two and start- 

 ing the ball /// the grooves, either by pushing it in 

 ahead of the shell or loading from the muzzle. One 

 or the other of these modes is now followed by all 

 long-range experts. 



The question of twist, depth, and number of grooves, 

 etc., you can quite safely leave to the rifle-maker. The 

 slower the twist up to a certain point, however, the 

 better for all high-velocity rifles. One turn in fifty 

 inches is enough for rifles shooting heavy charges of 

 powder and very short bullets. 



For accuracy, range, and penetration .44 caliber is 

 sufficient, and with an expansive ball properly made 

 is amply killing for nearly all shots on the soft parts 

 of an animal. For the solid parts a large round ball 

 of soft lead is the more effective, and taken for an 

 average of a hundred shots is the most effective form 

 in which the same weight of lead can be cast. It is 

 objected to large calibers that they tear and spoil the 

 animal too much. But they bleed an animal so much 

 more, and kill so much more quickly and certainly, 

 that in the long-run there is not a tenth of the waste 

 with them that there is with solid balls in the small- 

 bores; and owing to the comparative lightness of the 

 ball, it being generally round or very near the weight 

 of the round ball, the recoil is not at all unpleasant. 

 Popular opinion, however, favors the smaller bores 

 with solid balls, in spite of the amount of game crip- 

 pled and lost by them. 



No rifle need be over thirty inches long, and even 

 twenty-eight is enough for quite high velocities even 

 with quite coarse powder. It should be as handy and 



