I 
THE RIFLE OF A PAST HALF CENTURY 
21 
weapon, and the recoil is not so severe, owing to the 
lightness of the bullet. 
My opinion may be expressed in a few words. 
If you wish the bullet to expand, use soft lead, but 
keep the metal solid. If you wish for great penetra¬ 
tion, use hard solid metal, either tin or quick¬ 
silver. Even this will alter its form against the 
bones of a buffalo, but either of the above will go 
clean through a wapiti stag, and would kill another 
beyond it should the rifle be *577 fired with 6 drams 
of powder. 
The same rifle will not drive a soft leaden solid 
bullet through a male tiger if struck directly through 
the shoulder; it will be found flattened to a mush¬ 
room form beneath the skin* upon the other side, 
having performed its duty effectively, by killing the 
tiger upon the spot, and retaining intact the metal of 
which it was composed. 
A post-mortem inquiry in the latter case would be 
most satisfactory. If the bullet shall have struck 
fair upon the shoulder-joint, it will be observed that 
although it has retained its substance, the momentum 
has been conveyed to every fragment of crushed 
bone, which will have been driven forward through 
the lungs like a charge of buckshot, in addition to 
the havoc created by the large diameter of an ex¬ 
panded *577 bullet. Both shoulders will have been 
completely crushed, and the animal must of course 
be rendered absolutely helpless. This is a sine qua 
non in all shooting. Do not wound, but kill out¬ 
right; and this you will generally do with a *577 
