For small bores such as are used for deer stalking, &c., the hammerless system has some advantages; but there are objections to these actions for weapons intended for foreign sport, and these objections apply more particularly when big game rifles are in question. Most sportsmen are fairly well acquainted with the construction of the ordinary hammer gun fitted with rebounding locks, but very few know anything of the internal arrangements of the hammerless system, and there is no doubt that the internal arrangements of the latter are more likely to get out of order when subjected to the wear and tear and the rough usage of a shooting expedition than those of the former, to say nothing of their being more easily affected by sand, rust, &c. They are also less readily taken to pieces and cleaned.
Too much care cannot be given to the selection of a battery, the minutest details of the weapons, and the ammunition for them, and yet it is a curious fact that sportsmen frequently spend much time and money over their general outfit, and take but little heed about their weapons, upon which their sport, and possibly their lives, may depend.
In ordering a battery, choose the best rifles you can afford to pay for. The first expense is likely to appear heavy to those who can see little difference between the expensive rifle of a high-class maker and those supplied of a cheaper kind, but very little experience will be needed to prove that the best is the cheapest in the end.
Few sportsmen know the amount of money, care, and skill that has to be spent upon a double rifle which is the best of its kind and a really accurate weapon; that is to say, a double rifle which has its barrels so perfectly adjusted that even a skilled shot cannot tell the shooting of one barrel from that of the other. Great care has to be taken in the manufacture of all the parts, for the failure of a striker or a spring may mean serious or even fatal results to the shooter when after dangerous game; and this work has to be paid for.
The workmen employed on best rifle work are skilled men, and can always command high wages. In some of the cheaper kinds of double-barrelled rifles one barrel frequently shoots some inches away from the other, rendering it impossible for the sportsman to make good practice even at a target, much less at game.
Great strides in the accuracy and adjustment of double rifles have been made during the last ten years. It is impossible here to say exactly what diagrams one should be fairly entitled to expect, so much depends upon the type of rifle required; but perhaps as good a guide as any is to take the diagrams made by the winning rifles at the trials of sporting rifles before the editor of the ‘Field.’ For an ordinary Express it may be accepted that a double .450 firing ten shots, right and left barrel alternately, making a 4-inch group, viz. all the ten shots in a 4-inch square, is a very fine shooting weapon, and that one putting all its ten shots into a 6-inch at a hundred yards is quite up to the average.
Do not depend upon diagrams shown as the record of the shooting of a rifle. The only satisfactory plan is to go to the maker’s grounds and see the rifle fired, to fire it yourself, or, if that is not convenient, get a competent friend to go and see the diagrams made. Then, again, it is very desirable to have the sights cut to suit your own style of shooting, for it is not at all unusual for two good marksmen firing the same rifle to make a considerable difference in elevation on the target at, say, 100 yards range.
Recoil Heelplate.—It is not a bad plan to have recoil heelplates fitted to all rifles from .450 to 4 bores. They save the shoulder very much when firing large charges. See that the rubber is properly smoothed and varnished, so as to get rid of the clinging feeling these heelplates otherwise have.
Spare Weapons.—In going for any length of time upon a sporting expedition, it is always well to have reserve rifles which should be as nearly as possible duplicates of those in the regular battery in weight, mount, sighting, &c., so that no difference is noticed by the sportsman should he have to fall back upon his reserve. You may never want them, but if, when you are in the game district, hundreds of miles up country, you smash or injure the rifle you are depending upon, you will then fully appreciate the advantage of having a reserve. It is a very easy thing to break the stock of or otherwise damage a rifle, or it may even be lost, and if you have no others to fall back upon the sporting trip must be spoiled, or at any rate seriously hampered.
A fair battery for an expedition to Africa would be a pair of 8- or 10-bore rifles or ‘Paradox’ guns, shooting 8 to 10 drs. of powder; a pair of .500 bore, 5 drs. solid ball rifles, one .577 and a 12-bore shot or ‘Paradox’ gun. Also a .400 or a .450 single-rifle sighted up to 500 yards would be found very useful in many parts.