290 CHOICE OF WEAPONS 



rifles, except in the case of the small, handy 

 double "SOS, are usually heavy by reason of the 

 great reinforcement required at the breech ; but 

 I have always used them in preference to arms of 

 the light magazine type, for I have held the opinion 

 that, no matter how many cartridges your maga- 

 zine may contain, the hunter armed with his 

 double weapon is the better armed of the two. 

 He has two shots in the delivery of which he can 

 be as deliberate or as rapid as he chooses. There 

 is no occasion for hurry as in the case of the 

 magazine, and, to me, the most important con- 

 sideration of all is that your second shot is 

 delivereid without the loss of a moment, or at 

 times without disturbing the alignment which 

 follows the necessary removal of the magazine 

 rifle from the shoulder. I cannot, moreover, 

 refrain from the view that, in the case of young 

 and excitable men, the consciousness of a maga- 

 zine full of cartridges upon which to draw pro- 

 duces a carelessness which may simply wound 

 instead of cleanly killing, and may permanently 

 impair the individual's shooting. 



Personally, I have always proceeded on the 

 principle of furnishing myself with one good, 

 sound, all-round rifle, and holding a heavier second 

 in reserve in case of emergency, and I think my 

 views in this regard coincide with those of most of 

 my contemporaries. For a long time my battery 

 consisted of a double '303 by Holland & Holland, 

 which I found, during the fourteen years it re- 

 mained in my possession, an absolutely perfect 

 model of precision of workmanship. This, with 



