THE SIGHTING OF HUNTING-RIFLES. 359 



Holding high on game is well enough up to a cer- 

 tain point; but as soon as the game is so far off that 

 you have to hold entirely above the body, then arises 

 the same trouble that makes the "coarse bead" unre- 

 liable beyond the same point; to wit, it involves a 

 double guess where a single guess is bad enough. 

 It involves not only a guess at the distance, but a 

 guess at the distance you are holding above the 

 game, or a guess at the amount of front sight you are 

 taking. The eye cannot every time accurately mea- 

 sure off the same amount of front sight even when 

 you know just how much you want. And at a hun- 

 dred and fifty or two hundred yards the eye, in mea- 

 suring off a yard or so above a deer's back, will be ex- 

 tremely apt to be a foot or so out of the way. 



A good elevating-sight, when tested and marked 

 entirely avoids the second trouble. It involves only 

 the estimate of distance. And this difficulty is no 

 worse than in the other cases. But the sight should 

 be thoroughly tried at a target and marked for dif- 

 ferent distances. The factory markings are not at all 

 reliable. 



The common elevation on the open back sight a 

 small set of steps is of very little use beyond the 

 second or third step. The best way to use it is to 

 have the first step for the level sight or natural point 

 blank of your rifle. Then file the second step so as 

 to make an artificial point blank of a hundred yards. 

 File the third step so as to raise the point blank to a 

 hundred and fifty yards, and cut away the front edge 

 of this step so that it can be pushed into place in a 

 second with the thumb instead of requiring both 

 hands and a minute's time to adjust it. This is about 

 the best adjustment for the woods. Carry the rifle 



