8 DEER-STALKING. 



from twenty-six to thirty inches it is a matter of taste. 

 The short ones are more convenient, pleasanter to shoot 

 with, and come quicker on the mark ; they are also 

 slightly less weighty and more comfortably carried, and 

 less liable to the danger of catching the muzzle against 

 rocks or boulders in a run, and easier to keep out of 

 harm in a long tramp home in the dark, when stumbles 

 if not downright falls are unavoidable. 



There are also some gentlemen who use the '360 bore 

 rifle, but the bullet is so small that unless planted 

 exactly in the heart it is not deadly ; if so placed, of 

 course it is as deadly as a larger one. It was with 

 a *360 bore, fitted with the telescopic sight, that Mr. 

 Edward Kennard made his run of kills, as related in 

 The Field, this last autumn. It is, however, the 

 opinion of many that the use of the telescopic sight 

 makes the shooting of deer too easy. If the quarry 

 will only keep still it is apparently brought almost 

 within touch of the muzzle of the rifle, and missing 

 becomes nearly impossible. All the difficulties of 

 judging distance, all the nicety of taking the sight in 

 bad light, all the pleasure in fact of making a brilliant 

 shot with the ordinary rifle is done away with, and 

 whether this is to be desired is certainly a debatable 

 point, and resolves itself into a matter of taste. These 

 rifles seem more suited to sport in distant climes which 

 are visited by the traveller but once in a lifetime, 

 where shots are few and far between, and where missing 

 a rare beast may be an opportunity lost for ever ; but 

 they seem a mistake for deer in Scotland, which if 

 missed one day will live to show more sport on another 



