THE SIGHTING OF HUNTING-RIFLES. 357 



straight short bar, without horns, scoops, or notches 

 of any kind, was far superior, especially for quickness. 

 And on the vertical-line shooting there is no such dif- 

 ference as would be supposed. The eye finds the 

 center of it so instinctively that you do not have to 

 look for it at all. You merely raise the rifle and look 

 for the proper amount of front sight, or " the right 

 bead." Then the eye finds the center so exactly that 

 except possibly for the very finest kind of target- 

 shooting, you can detect no difference. I say possibly, 

 for I have never tried it on anything finer than an 

 inch bull's-eye at twenty yards that being about my 

 outside limit with any rifle. But a dozen or more of 

 my acquaintances have at the first trial with my rifle 

 so sighted shot exactly the same as with their own. 

 Many of my friends have adopted it; all of them are 

 pleased with it; none desire any other. One friend 

 made the best shooting with it at. bullet-holes and 

 rabbits running that he has ever made with anything. 

 This may be used as well with the globe-sight above 

 described as the buckhorn may be. 



The back sight I use is a straight bar of hard black 

 rubber about thirty-five hundredths of an inch wide, 

 perfectly level on top. Iron or bone soaked with ink 

 will do as well; but iron should be kept corroded with 

 tincture of iodine and then blackened with ink. With 

 such a sight and ivory on the ball in front you can 

 swing your rifle around the horizon in the sun and see 

 no change of light-center and not a glimmer from the 

 bar. And you can shoot ten degrees closer to the 

 sun's eye with them than with any other set of open 

 sights. The \ 7 ery best of all is a piece of hard sole- 

 leather, made still harder by boiling and hammering 

 and drying in an oven. Soaked with ink, not a ray 



