GALLERY AUTOMATIC PISTOLS
Rifles and pistols though greatly improved in some respects are now progressing too much in one direction.
The inventor’s sole idea seems to be to get the most powerful cartridge possible.
They have now reduced the rifle to a small bore with an extremely heavy charge and therefore the rifle has to be made very heavy to be safe from bursting.
This may be very necessary for war but it is a great disadvantage for the many other purposes a rifle is used for.
The new rifle is unsuitable for dangerous game shooting. People think that as such game is shot at very long ranges and that the further off the game is shot the better the sportsman.
I am constantly asked, “When deer stalking, how far off do you shoot a stag?”
They expect the answer to be, “A thousand yards or so.”
When I say, “as close as I can possibly get, generally from about fifty to seventy yards, I never shoot at deer beyond two hundred yards” they form a very low opinion of my skill.
With bears and wild boar seventy yards is a long shot, from ten to forty is the usual distance.