The Repeating Rifle in Hunting and Warfare [pp. 141-148]

Thle Repeating Rifle ini Hunting and Warfare.
THE REPEARING RIFLE IN HUNTING AND WARFARE.
IN the days of the muzzle loader, rifles
were commonly met with having very
long barrels, these old fashioned weapons being frequently quite six feet in
length. To balance these long and
cumbrous pieces, and to secure a true
aim while in the act of shooting, the
rifleman extended his arm its full length
along the barrel, and grasped the piece
usually about midway towards the muzzle, or quite as far forward as the length
of his arm would permit, in other words,
as near the center of gravity as possible;
or, when practicable, secured a rest. In
building these old-fashioned rifles, the
butt of the stock was cut out, and a metallic butt-plate, in shape almost semicircular, fixed thereon. In the aiming
position this plate rested upon and
around the biceps muscle of the arm below where it is attached to the scapula,
and this crescent shaped plate, by partially encircling and binding upon the
arm both above and below it, served to
prevent any up-and-down play of the
stock, and mainly in this way helped towards preserving a steady aim. To ensure a proper equilibrium of the body
while sighting one of these long and
heavy pieces, (for these rifles weighed
seldom less than twelve pounds, and
often fourteen and sixteen pounds, and
even more) the rifleman stood with his
legs spread wide apart, one foot much
in advance of the other, his chest thrown
out, and head carried well back. In going through the various preliminaries of
getting ready, in taking his position, in
settling this long rifle into place, as well
as in aiming, he was deliberation itself;
in fact, deliberation was almost unavoidable in the proper manipulation of this
heavy piece, and the above was the position usually taken and manner of shooting of nearly all the old time crack
marksmen and hunters.
In the building of these rifles the bar rels were made long, partly for the rea son that continued aim can more easily
be kept on an object with such a barrel
than with a short one, and partly to give
time for the full effect of the expansive
force of the powder to act on the projectile. They were made heavy to help
in securing the continued aim mentioned
in the first clause of the preceding sentence, and also to take up the recoil; for
hair-triggers were used entirely in those
days, and many riflemen in the act of
firing held their piece but loosely, merely
balancing it as it were, relying upon the
weight of the barrel to take up the recoil. Our old time gunsmiths, perhaps
on this account as much as any other,
built their rifles with a view to lessening this recoil as much as possible,
though as between muzzle and breech
loader, owing to radical differences in
the two systems, the recoil of a muzzle
loader is probably much less, other
things being equal, than that of a breech
loader, even when the rifles are of the
same weight.
The caliber of most of these old rifles
was not large, owing to the dislike of the
frontiersman to pack any great weight
of ammunition; and in hunting wild animals he depended more upon the accuracy of his weapon than upon the size of
the ball. The head or neck shot was
generally taken, for a vital spot had to be
struck by the small bullet used in such
rifles, in, order to secure large game.
When they were properly loaded, aimed,
and fired, the most extreme accuracy was
obtained with these old-fashioned rifles
at all ranges, and even when the method
of loading was faulty, or carelessly executed, surprisingly good shooting was
often done with the muzzle loader at
short range. All of this accuracy, the
length, shape, and weight, of the piece,
1892.1
141