THE GUN, AND TOW TO USE IT. 125 
The mode of selecting a ric to suit the shooter, is 
identical with that of choosing a shot gun. The way to 
ascertain its operation, is for the buyer to have it tried in 
his own presence, at arm’s length and at rest, at long and 
short ranges, with the wind, against the wind, and across 
the wind—which last, if it be blowing any thing like a 
respectable breeze, is the hardest test of all—by some one 
in whose shooting, if he be not confident of his own, he 
may have perfect reliance. If it execute quickly, surely 
and forcibly, he may be sure he has got what he requires. 
But, by all means, let him insist on trying it, or seeing it 
tried, in the open. No testing ina gallery of fifteen or 
thirty paces is worth sixpence, as a real proof, either of 
the weapon or of the shooter; and none but a tyro would 
dream of purchasing on such a childish assay. Distance 
and penetration are the only true tests. At twenty feet 
a schoolboy’s steel cross-bow, with a deal bolt, will snuff 
a candle; at a hundred yards it will hardly hit a house. 
If, notwithstanding all that I have written, the hunter 
lean to the old single rifle, let him select one of not less 
than a $ ounce round ball, seven or eight pounds’ weight, 
and 33 to 36-inch barrels, by any American maker, and 
he can scarce go wrong. 
If he want a supereminent double, let him pay Purday, 
Moore or Lang, of London, fifty guineas for his last and 
best turn-out, and he will not be disappointed; but in my 
mind, if he prefer a double, he will do well if he cause 
each barrel to be separately sighted at the breech and on 
the end, instead of in the ordinary method, which sights 
both intermediately along the dividing elevation. 
