VoL LXXXIX 
SEPTEMBER. 1919 
No. 9 
HOW TO HOLD THE RIFLE ON GAME 
A FEW VERY IMPORTANT RULES WHICH THE HUNTER SHOULD OBSERVE WHEN 
HE GOES INTO THE WOODS THIS FALL AND MEETS THE COVETED QUARRY 
By F. E. BRIMMER 
T here are a few simple mechanical 
rules of correct aiming that will de- 
termine whether you bring home 
that buck deer or return empty handed. 
Of course the same principles of ac- 
curacy in sighting the rifle will hold as 
true if you are in quest of the bear, 
caribou, moose, elk, or sheep. 
The Indian shooter had the better of 
the modern shooter for many reasons. 
First of all the Redskin never knew such 
a term as trajectory and never needed 
to get acquainted with it, be- 
cause at every shot he could 
see his arrow speed through 
space and knew when he was 
aiming too high or not hold- 
ing high enough to hit. His 
arrow’s flight told him that 
fact every time. But the mod- 
em hunter can’t see his bul- 
let, unfortuntely for him and 
fortunately for the game, so 
that we have to deal with that 
tricky and abstract term 
known confldentially among 
gun cranks and experts as 
trajectory. If a man could see 
every foot of the patch over 
which his bullet travels from 
gun muzzle to target it would 
be a pretty simple thing for 
him to hit his deer, for his 
first shot would automatically 
give him the range. I have 
corresponded with the largest ammuni- 
tion manufactory in this country in re- 
gard to using smoke bullets on game, but 
the head engineer, the superintendent, 
the manager and the company’s experts 
all shake their heads and say no. 
You remember the aviators used smoke 
bullets when shooting down enemy planes 
and found them to be mighty deadly. 
The trail of smoke left behind the bul- 
lets told the gunner whether he was 
shooting ahead or behind the speeding 
target so that he just naturally corrected 
his error until he got his plane. Now, 
why should not sportsmen have the ad- 
vantage of this same ammunition since 
the war is over? The answer is, and 
I believe it is a good one, that this sort 
of ammunition used on game would give 
the hunter too big an advantage over 
his quarry. Smoke bullets would not 
give the game a fifty-fifty chance for 
his life and so probably would be out- 
lawed as soon as put on the market. 
Also the smoke bullet does not begin to 
show its smoke under several hundred 
yards and so the military type would 
have to be modified in some way to meet 
the needs of the American hunter. No 
doubt it could be done, but I do not be- 
lieve it will ever become used extensively 
in big game hunting. However, the us« 
of the smoke bullet may develop for 
target work at the range, and a shotgun 
shell may be invented which shows the 
path of the shot for the trap shooter. 
A shot shell that would show its smoke 
path would be a fine thing for the hunter 
— but woe to the game. 
Anyhow, the Indian had the advantage 
and that we can’t deny. Of course this 
was all oflFset by the fact that his arm 
was crude and cumbersome, lacked speed, 
killing power, and was far inferior in 
many ways to the modern sporting arm. 
Just the same, he wasn’t bothered about 
trajectory as we are today, yet he used 
the same principle that every hunter 
does now. Gravity pulled the Redskin’s 
arrow toward the ground just as it does 
the metal patch bullet and there is no 
way of stopping it that has been dis- 
covered. Some manufacturers claim to 
turn out rifles that shoot( absolutely point- 
blank for three hundred yards, but I 
doubt if this could be possible. The 
trajectory may be rather low 
because of the high velocity 
and the light weight of the 
bullet, but just the same the 
force of gravity is at work on 
that bullet and must pull it 
down several inches in three 
hundred yards. 
1, il- 
lustrates the proper align- 
ment for sights which 
gets game for every hunter. 
Notice that neither too much 
nor too little of the front bead 
shows; that it is just about 
level with the top of the hori- 
zontal line of the rear sight 
and that the rifle is held 
plumb. By plumb I mean that 
the gun is gripped perfectly 
straight up and down with re- 
spect to its upper and lower 
parts, say the lower corner of the 
butt and the upper rim of the sights. 
The dotted lines on this photograph show 
that the rifle is held plumb, for the tops 
of the sights are held in a horizontal 
line while the up-and-down of the gun 
is perfectly perpendicular, or at least 
practically so and accurate enough for 
correct field shooting. The shooter who 
holds his gun like this will be pretty 
sure to get his game if he does not take 
too coarse or too fine a view of the front 
bead in the notch of the rear sight. 
Holding the gun plumb is a cardinal 
principle that he who shoots and desires 
results that come in the wake of ac- 
