110 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
distance; and it may be assumed that within one hundred, 
a ball of one hundred to the pound may be lodged in 
a stationary mark, by a hand and eye used to such shoot- 
ing, with such precision as to insure death to the object 
aimed at. 
At this time the art of gunmaking of all kinds was 
rude in the extreme, and the commonest of all prevailing 
errors was the almost universal belief that extreme length 
of barrel, whether in the rifle or fowling-piece, produced 
corresponding length of flight to the missile. 
Rifle barrels were not unfrequently made of five feet 
and upward in length, and the ball was made to take two 
or more spiral perfect revolutions within the barrel previous 
to its expulsion. The art was in its infancy; and as no 
pieces were made which could outshoot these old-fashioned 
clumsy implements, while, from certain necessities of his 
position and habits, certain peculiarities of his character 
and temperament, the American backwoodsman became 
perfect in the use of the weapon, the weapon itself came 
to be regarded as perfect, and itself and the marksman 
who wielded it, were regarded with mingled apprehension 
and admiration. 
Still it was never adopted by any other nation, and 
never has been used, in the true sense, as a sporting 
weapon—I mean as one used to kill game for a sport and 
pastime, and not for the value of the game. Its extreme 
inadaptibility to rapid firing, especially at things in quick 
motion, its comparatively limited range, the want of weight 
in its ball, which, unless it hits its object directly in a 
vital spot, is of little moro effect on large game than a 
