286 FIREARMS 



high velocity arms, the rapidity with which, step 

 by step, the present light, powerful, perfectly 

 balanced and accurately sighted rifle has been 

 reached is comparable only to the astonishing 

 improvement in the ammunition of the present 

 day. Naturally the preponderating amount of 

 credit for this truly marvellous result is accorded 

 quite justly to the persevering gunmaker ; but 

 no small share in the responsibility is due to quite 

 another person, namely, to the man who buys 

 and uses the arm when completed, and whose 

 experiences with it enable him to offer sug- 

 gestions for future embodiment in a more perfect 

 weapon. 



Twenty years ago, the expresses and the old 

 Martini -450 were just being superseded by the 

 smaller, lighter, handier Lee-Metford. Men of 

 my acquaintance who had shot for years with 

 heavy, punishing express rifles of -400, -450, -500, 

 and -577 were amazed at the accuracy and pene- 

 tration of the neat, comparatively tiny '303 

 cartridge, and its success as a sporting arm was 

 rapid and overwhelming. The immense advan- 

 tage of cordite as a propulsive force was at once 

 understood and appreciated. The practical 

 elimination of the old cumbersome back-sight by 

 the flat trajectory afforded by the use of the new 

 powder was in itself an unhoped for revelation. 

 What did it matter whether the beast stood at 

 100 or 150 or 200 yards ? One fixed sight and a 

 straight-held rifle were capable of doing all that 

 had previously demanded anxious and accurate 

 estimates of distances and a careful adjustment of 



