In case where there are no means of getting at the quality of a rifle from the grade affixed and tests made by a responsible manufacturer, the gunsmith will of course be forced to fall back upon his own resources. What these are we need not state. The gun must be subjected to a most critical examination in every part, in obedience to rules laid down for examining breech-loading shot guns, after which its shooting qualities must be thoroughly tested. To no botch at the business can be trusted the shooting test, if it be wished to decide whether or not a certain rifle can be recommended as being of first-class quality—the work must be performed at the hands of an expert, and it must be continued until is secured unmistakable proof as to how the gun shoots. When a man buys a good rifle he does it in the expectation of becoming the owner of a gun qualified to shoot well, and, no matter how perfect it might be in all other respects, the slightest deficiency in this particular would be sure to rouse a high degree of uncompromising dissatisfaction. CHAPTER XXXVI. ON USING THE RIFLE. _The Old Kentucky Rifle._—The old backwoods hunters who used the long Kentucky rifle, had really but a very imperfect idea of its capabilities. The gun was provided with a hind and a fore-sight, the latter a “bead” located near the muzzle and rising but little above the common level of the surface of the barrel, and the former a small vertical plate set in the barrel a short distance in advance of the lock, and containing in the centre of its upper edge a fine slit through which to look at the “bead” in the act of taking aim. The hind-sight stood further above the barrel than the fore-sight, but why it so stood was something about which the owner seldom concerned himself. Of course the gunsmith knew it was for the purpose of setting the “aim” below the starting line of the bullet, in order that the natural curve in its flight might be accommodated, but this was usually a secret of the gunsmiths which nobody cared to possess. The sight was immovable, could neither be raised nor lowered, consequently the gun could not be adapted to circumstances of long or short range. The elevation of the sight usually crossed the line of vision and that of the flight of the bullet at about one hundred yards distance, hence the shooting at shorter range was apt to be a little too high and too low at longer range. At two hundred yards it was merely accidental, though the bullet struck with a degree of force apparently unabated at that distance. If the hunter killed his game at two hundred yards, he did it by aiming a few feet too high for a “sight” at one hundred yards, consequently he never shot at that distance so long as there was a prospect of being able to creep nearer. And yet, with the right kind of elevated sight the gun would have been equally as effectual at two hundred yards as at one hundred; in truth it would have been good