LOADING AND MANAGEMENT OF RIFLES. 377 



before the emery is applied to it. Apply it as evenly 

 as possible, make the stroke long and steady, use 

 plenty of oil, and keep up the polishing no longer 

 than is necessary. Emery may, however, be as hard 

 to get as a gunsmith. In such case use fine wood- 

 ashes and plenty of muscle, and in either case have 

 the barrel firmly lashed or fastened to something 

 solid. 



But no amount of care with a rifle will obviate the 

 necessity of practice with it in order to do good 

 shooting. And this practice should be in the field, 

 at natural marks, at varying distances, and in vary- 

 ing play of light and shade. It should be up hill and 

 down hill, across valleys, etc. etc. Beyond the ordi- 

 nary and obvious reasons for this I will mention an- 

 other which affects me very much and must affect 

 every one somewhat; viz., ocular aberration, or the 

 impossibility of always measuring off with the eye 

 the same exact amount of front sight necessary for 

 good shooting on the horizontal line. The difference 

 on the front sight of the thickness of two sheets of 

 paper may cause a miss at one hundred yards. Who 

 without much practice can tell the edge of six sheets 

 of paper pressed together at the edge and held four 

 feet from his eye from eight sheets held the same 

 way? It would be hard enough even if both were 

 seen side by side. Get a good carpenter to make you 

 a foot-rule from memory, or ask a good draughtsman 

 to mark you out by his eye a dozen or so separate 

 one-eighth parts of an inch. Then get him to meas- 

 ure them and you will see one great cause of bad 

 shooting. 



All through the subject of ri^es I have for brevity 

 omitted much that is generally known, such as how 



