45fi 
FOREST AND STREAM 
September, 1919 
No. I. Showing open sights properly ciimeci 
No. 2 . Rifle tipped to right and a miss shot into circle at K 
curate holding must practice by force of 
habit. No rule that is taught the young 
shooter is more important than that he 
should hold his rifle perfectly straight up 
and down for to roll it over on either side 
will cause a miss that the best gun made 
cannot be held to account for. Many 
shooters blame a good gun for they say 
that they held properly, just as they 
had done many times before, still the 
shot was inaccurate. Ten to one they 
were not holding the barrel true and 
so trajectory (that principle that the 
Indian didn’t have to think about be- 
cause he could see it), threw the bullet 
to one side or the other when the sights 
deceived the shooter into believing that 
he was aiming perfectly right. 
I remember once that a hunter was 
offered an easy shot at a moose when 
the distance was not more then fifty 
yards and missed because he rolled his 
rifle over to one side. He had been 
hiding behind a log and the moose walked 
right on top of him so that he had to 
be careful not to make any noise or cause 
the moose to see him, so he worked him- 
self to the end of the log and quietly 
thrust the muzzle of his rifle around the 
end. He could not quite reach the re- 
quired distance to hold the gun plumb 
and anyway he aimed his sights properly, 
so he said, even if the gun was tipped 
way over to one side, what difference 
did it make? It made enough so that he 
missed an easy shot and didn’t 
get his coveted moose. Photo- 
graph No. 2, illustrates why 
the moose was missed, because 
the rifle was tipped to the 
right. 
Remember that when the 
gun is held upright and plumb 
the bullet will travel high over 
the path that your eye sees 
and when it reaches its target 
will be on a somewhat down- 
w’ard course. Then, if the 
barrel is tipped over, the bul- 
let does not go high alone, but 
rather to one side and high. 
Hence the bullet in photograph 
No. 2, is a clean miss and 
strikes somewhere in the cir- 
cle at K. Nothing can be more 
anger provoking than to miss 
a deer at close range when the 
sights look to be properly 
aligned but such will be the case if the 
gun is not held properly in an up-and- 
down position, as it was sighted to be 
held at the factory. The rifle was made 
to be held plumb and will not shoot true 
when rolled over to one side. Suppose the 
sights had been at right angles to their 
proper position when the shot was made. 
In that case the bullet would be thrown 
off to the right, the distance from the 
line of vision increasing as the distance 
increased. So, no matter how much the 
firearm is tipped over, be it just a trifle, 
the bullet is thereby caused to go a lit- 
tle to the right or the left of the line 
over which your eye looks to the target. 
If the bullet went straight from muz- 
zle to deer, then the aim shown in photo- 
graph No. 2 , would be perfectly correct. 
If any company can build a gun that has 
no trajectory then the aim at No. 2, will 
be correct for that gun, and the shooter 
can lie down on his side to shoot if he 
wants to. But with the guns that I am 
acquainted with you have got to hold 
the barrel plumb. When someone gets 
a bullet that gravity can’t pull toward 
the center pf the earth in its unsup- 
ported flight, then the aim illustrated will 
be just as effective as that in the first 
photograph. When the barrel rolls or 
tips to the right the bullet will fall to 
the right of the target and when it is 
tipped to the left the bullet is going to 
fly to the left. That’s a mechanical fact 
that every shooter ought to take into 
the mountains and bogs with him. 
T OO much is often expected of the 
rifle in field shooting and even when 
results are mechanically impossible 
for any gun to get, the shooter blames 
his weapon and his ammunition where 
the fault is all his own. At the rifle 
range the mechanics of shooting are bet- 
ter looked after than in the woods, for 
one reason, because one has plenty of 
time when target shooting, unless it be 
the speed or rapid fire drill. More than 
this, the shooter has opportunity to get 
into a natural position when target shoot- 
ing. He can select his footing, his rest, 
or his position, while in the field the 
shot often has to be made under condi- 
tions that require quick aim, unnatural 
position, and general unfavorable con- 
ditions. At the rifle range the proper 
position of the body and gun can be 
gained by a shooter of any experience at 
all, whether he is shooting prone or 
standing makes no difference. 
Many shooters make the mistake shown 
in photograph No. 2, when they rest 
the gun against a tree, over a fence, or 
around a rock. Did you ever notice that 
the very best and most dependable field 
shots never rest a gun? They prefer 
trusting to off-hand shooting and gener- 
ally get results. The body just natur- 
ally holds itself and gun erect when 
shooting from the shoulder 
without rest, while a rest in 
the woods is never plumb and 
so the gun is tipped over for 
a miss. In the long run the 
shooter who does offhand work 
will go home with more re- 
sults than the shooter who all 
the time wants to seek a rest 
when any shot is presented to 
him. Getting down on one 
knee might not be included in 
the rest positions that were 
bad because of the fact that 
only the body is concerned. 
The trouble arises when a tree, 
log, or other external and solid 
substance forms the basis of 
the support for the firearm. 
A hunter who has stalked a 
deer or moose for many hours 
through thick timber, bogs or 
other rough country without 
No. 3 . Showing relative size of sights and game 
