erfectly calm atmosphere, the light guns I have alluded to will
shoot very well for one or two hundred yards; but no one can conceive,
till he proves it by actual trial, what an amazing difference in
precision is the result of even a very slight increase of weight of
ball, when the air is in motion. Even in a dead calm no satisfactory
shooting can be done beyond two hundred yards with a lighter ball than
half an ounce, and any one who becomes interested in rifle-practice will
soon grow impatient of being confined to short ranges and calm weather.
This brings us, then, to the question of calibre, which I conceive to be
the first one to be decided in selecting a gun, and the decision rests
upon the uses to which the gun is to be applied. If it is wanted merely
for military service, nothing better than the Enfield can be procured;
but if the purchaser proposes to study the niceties of practice, and to
enter into it with a keen zest, he will need a very different style of
gun. A calibre large enough for a round ball of fifty to the pound, or
an elongated shot of about half an ounce, is sufficient for six hundred
yards; and a gun of that calibre, with a thirty-inch barrel, and a
weight of about ten pounds, is better suited to the general wants of
purchasers than any other size. In this part of the country it is by no
means easy to find a place where shooting can be safely practised even
at so long a range as five hundred yards,--which is sixty yards more
than a quarter of a mile. It is always necessary to have an attendant
at the target to point out the shots, and even then the shooter needs
a telescope to distinguish them. For ordinary purposes, therefore, the
calibre I have indicated is all-sufficient; but if a gun is wanted for
shooting up to one thousand yards, the shot should be a full ounce
weight. These are points which each man must determine for himself, and,
having done so, let him go to any gun-maker of established reputation,
and, before giving his order, let him study and compare the different
forms of stocks, till he finds what is required for his peculiar
physical conformation,--and giving directions accordingly, he will
probably secure a weapon whose merits he will not fully appreciate
till he has attained a degree of skill which is the result only of
long-continued practice.

But never buy a gun, and least of all a rifle, without trying it; and do
not be satisfied with a trial in a shop or shooting gallery, b