EVOLUTION OF GUNS AND RIFLES 
with men to load them, a very rapid rate of fire can be maintained which 
meets all requirements for killing driven game in Europe. So far as the 
firing of two shots in rapid succession is concerned, the double-barrelled 
gun is supreme. But where the shooter, singlehanded, pursues his own 
game in a wild country, it is worth while to sacrifice extreme rapidity 
in firing the second shot in exchange for the power to fire a series of four 
or five shots without bringing the gun down from the shoulder. Hence 
the development in America of what is commonly called the “ pump 
gun,” a single barrelled weapon in which a simple movement of a handle 
in the fore-end, gripped by the left hand, performs in an instant all the 
operations of extraction and ejection, inserting a cartridge from a magazine 
under the barrel, and cocking the lock ready for the trigger to be pulled. 
Thus, after a little practice, four or five shots can be fired with almost 
no loss of time. Such guns are made by the Winchester, Remington, 
Stevens, and other companies, and sell in the States for 25 dollars; they 
can be produced in Belgium at a still cheaper rate, owing to the less cost 
there of labour. They require almost no hand finishing, and work well. 
They compete against cheap double guns, which are made in large quan- 
tities, for America supplies herself. But good for the money as cheap 
factory -made double guns may be, they lack the certainty, endurance 
and satisfaction in use which the best hand -made guns provide. The 
pump gun has never become popular in this country, where it is apt to 
be considered unfair to the game, but it meets a need in many parts of the 
world. 
These weapons take us a long step on the road to the self-loading gun 
such as the Browning, in which, by the recoil of the barrel or otherwise, 
the reloading mechanism is actuated with no movement of the hand. 
These are convenient on occasion, and less clumsy than might have been 
expected, but they are not always to be relied on, and have not come into 
favour. They are being improved, however, every day, and cannot fail 
ultimately to become reliable. Their advent cannot but conduce ultimately 
to the diminution and extinction of game which is now proceeding apace 
in so many parts of the world. Nor is there any reason to suppose that 
the development of such means of destruction will end with the improve- 
ments now in view. The march of invention in such matters proceeds 
faster now than ever before, and while it is hard to anticipate, and danger- 
ous to prophesy, its future, we may be sure of one thing, that, for better or 
for worse, its activity will remain unceasing. 
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