346 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



as well fitted to you as a shot-gun. For the ill-bal- 

 anced, clumsy, straight-stocked, long-stocked, awk- 

 ward things often seen on the market there is abso- 

 lutely no excuse. Neither is a crescent-shaped scoop 

 in the stock that requires adjustment to the shoulder 

 anything but a nuisance, especially for running shoot- 

 ing. It is a stupid relic of the age that thought six- 

 teen pounds of iron four feet long necessary to shoot 

 a pea-bullet with accuracy. 



A hunting-rifle of caliber as large as .55 need not 

 weigh over ten pounds, and eight pounds is plenty for 

 one of .44 caliber. 



The only other point important enough to mention 

 now is the trajectory of the rifle for a hundred and 

 fifty yards or so. The trajectory is the path of the 

 bullet through the air, and is always a curve, although 

 for some distance no curve can be detected either by 

 shooting at targets or at game. 



The greater the initial velocity or the speed with 

 which the bullet is driven from the gun, and the 

 greater the bullet's power of retaining that speed, 

 either by increase of caliber, elongation, or sharpening 

 of the bullet's front, the greater the distance over 

 which the bullet will be driven without making curve 

 enough to overshoot or undershoot your mark. 



When you have once had some experience of the 

 marvelous tendency to overshoot game under most 

 conditions of light and ground, of the extreme diffi- 

 culty of calculating and allowing for distance, of the 

 great danger of missing by raising sights, holding 

 over game, taking " coarse bead " on the front sight, 

 etc. etc., you will see that it is of the utmost import- 

 ance to extend as far as possible this distance over 

 which the path of the bullet appears to be level. And 



