These natives look upon a first-class English rifle
with a sort of veneration. Such a weapon would be a perfect
fortune to one of these people, and I have often been astonished
that robberies of such things are not more frequent.
There is much difference of opinion among Ceylon sportsmen as to
the style of gun for elephant-shooting. But there is one point
upon which all are agreed, that no matter what the size of the
bore may be, all the guns should be alike, and the battery for
one man should consist of four double-barrels. The confusion in
hurried loading where guns are of different calibres is beyond
conception.
The size and the weight of guns must depend as much on the
strength and build of a man as a ship's armament does upon her
tonnage; but let no man speak against heavy metal for heavy game,
and let no man decry rifles and uphold smooth-bores (which is
very general), but rather let him say, "I cannot carry a heavy
gun," and "I cannot shoot with a rifle."
There is a vast difference between shooting at a target and
shooting at live game. Many men who are capital shots at
target-practice cannot touch a deer, and cannot even use the
rifle as a rifle at live game, but actually knock the sights out
and use it as a smoothbore. This is not the fault of the weapon;
it is the fault of the man. It is a common saying in Ceylon, and
also in India, that you cannot shoot quick enough with the rifle,
because you cannot get the proper sight in an instant.
Whoever makes use of this argument must certainly be in the habit
of very random shooting with a smoothbore. How can he possibly
get a correct aim with "ball" out of a smoothbore, without
squinting along the barrel and taking the muzzle-sight
accurately? The fact is, that many persons fire so hastily at
game that they take no sight at all, as though they were
snipe-shooting with many hundred grains of shot in the charge.
This will never do for ball-practice, and when the rifle is
placed in such hands, the breech-sights naturally bother the eye
which is not accustomed to recognize any sight; and while the
person is vainly endeavouring to get the sight correctly on a
moving object, the animal is increasing his distance. By way of
cutting the Gordian knot, he therefore knocks his sight out, and
accordingly spoils the shooting of the rifle altogether.
Put a rifle in the hands of a man who knows how to handle it, and
let him shoot against the mutilated weapon deprived of its sight,
and laugh at the trial.
