THE RIFLE FOR GAME SHOOTING. 

 Editor Recreation : 



Choosing a rifle is very much like choosing 

 a wife, and, happily, all men do not fall in 

 love with the same woman. It is the same 

 way with rifles. If there were a demand for 

 but one make of rifle we should be in the 

 hands of a monopoly, that would certainly 

 charge us, at least, $100 apiece for our 

 weapons. 



All the standard makes of American rifles 

 are thoroughly efficient upon American game. 

 We have nothing on this continent that can 

 resist the persuasive powers of our rifles in 

 the larger and more powerful calibers. If we 

 had rhinoceri and elephants we should be 

 forced to go in for more powerful weapons 

 than those that are in demand, but as these 

 animals are not found to-day upon the North 

 American continent we may leave them out 

 of the question. 



Certain points of excellence all successful 

 rifles must have in common. They must be 

 accurate, and the standard of accuracy upon 

 this continent is higher than elsewhere. 

 European sportsmen for years stuck to the 

 double express rifle, a decidedly inaccurate 

 weapon at the longer ranges, and not a 

 weapon of precision even at 150 yards. Its 

 great merit in their eyes was its power, and 

 its handiness, which made it balance like a 

 double shot gun, and the European's weapon 

 is, after all, the double barrel, twelve bore, 

 for comparatively few do much rifle shooting 

 at game. Our North American hunting is so 

 different in character from the jungle shoot- 

 ing of India, and the stalking in the High- 

 lands of Scotland, that it was quite inevit- 

 able it should create a demand for a very 

 different type of rifle. 



Too fine a rifle is a mistake. All our big 

 game hunting is done in the wilder parts of 

 the continent, where the sportsman and his 

 weapon are exposed to the attacks of the 

 elements let loose. A rifle that would serve 

 its purpose admirably if turned over to an 

 attendant to clean every night, might fail at 

 our work, we having no attendant to carry 



the said rifle snugly wrapped in what one of 

 my Indians used to call its "Gun coat," until 

 wanted. A superbly finished double rifle, 

 costing some $400, is a very desirable piece 

 of property, but when you have to knock 

 around in a canoe, or with a pack train in 

 the mountains, and both yourself and your 

 rifle are wet for days at a time, with no 

 chance to do much cleaning and drying off, 

 any of our factory rifles would be a much 

 more efficient weapon. The stocks are 

 stronger, the barrels stouter, and not so liable 

 to injury through some casual blow. 



The regular factory butt is the so-called 

 rifle butt, somewhat narrow, and crescent- 

 shaped, fitting on the upper arm instead of 

 bedding against the shoulder muscles as the 

 shot gun stock should do. It is quite a mat- 

 ter of personal choice which butt to use. 

 The rifle butt has, perhaps, some advantage 

 in the case of a man who always shoots 

 standing, and never at moving game, but it 

 is not to be recommended for shots at ani- 

 mals in motion, nor for snap shooting, nor 

 when the charge is a heavy one. The rifle 

 stock should have more bend than the gun 

 stock. A gun stock for quick wing shooting 

 can hardly be too straight, and during the 

 past twenty years the tendency among crack 

 shots has been to use a straighter stock, so 

 that, instead of drops of three and one-half 

 inches, a great many men now use one of two 

 inches, but with a rifle it is somewhat differ- 

 ent. You have to get your eye right down 

 to the breech. Something you need not do 

 after a little practice, with a shot gun. 



A rifle that is very light at the muzzle 

 often balances as pleasantly as a shot gun, 

 but this lightening of the barrel can be car- 

 ried too far. A rifle that is very light for- 

 ward vibrates more than a stouter barrel, 

 and, moreover, in very rough travel a stout 

 barrel is an undoubted advantage, as it is so 

 much less liable to damage. Great care of 

 barrels should be taken, but, as a matter of 

 fact, they have to suffer many abuses, and are 

 often used for purposes for which they were 

 never intended. For instance, the U. S. 

 Cavalry troopers have been known to use the 



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