RIFLES AND AMMUNITION 191 



instead. He explained that, owing to the new 

 rule prohibiting the importation into India 

 of *450 rifles, the Society was unable to supply 

 one. The regulation had only just been pub- 

 lished. Fortunately for myself the specialist 

 in the gun department had neglected to send 

 down a couple of '500 rifles for trial in addi- 

 tion to the "400, or I would almost certainly 

 have plumped for one of these, and so have un- 

 necessarily overweighted myself. Here was a 

 dilemma ! I could only spare one more day 

 at Nunhead to try the rifle again, when a parti- 

 cular form of backsight I had designed was 

 fitted. And I had little faith in the *400-bore. 

 However, here I was, and here were the rifles. 

 I might just as well try them, now that I had 

 troubled to come down. I did so, and was so 

 pleased with their accuracy and penetration, 

 that I selected the one which had given the 

 best results, and ordered the backsight to be 

 fitted, and the stock cut to my measurements. 

 For good or ill I was now pledged to the '400. 

 I tried it again with the new backsight, and it 

 made wonderful shooting, so that, so far as 

 accuracy went, I had a rifle I could rely on. 

 On getting out to Burma the first thing I tackled 

 with it was a bull bison. The bullet, a solid 

 nickel, struck the animal in the chest and was 

 cut out close to the tail. The bull galloped for 

 a hundred yards and fell over dead. The next 



