The kind of rifle best suited for red deer in Scotland is a double .303,
.256, or .275. These weapons with a hollow-fronted or a soft-nosed
bullet can be made to expend all the impact energy within the body of a
deer, whereas if hard the bullets would pierce a stag from end to end
and possibly do him no immediate damage. Magazine single rifles would be
almost as effective if they were not noisy in loading, and single
loaders are slow, but almost as extremely moderate in price as the
latter. The sporting range for a stag before the express rifles was from
40 to 100 yards. The express increased the range at which a true
sportsman would risk a shot up to 150 yards, and the high velocity
rifles named above are doubtless as deadly at 250 yards as the Henry
rifle was at 100 yards. The flat trajectory of a rifle giving an initial
velocity of from 2000 to 2400 feet per second is of even more importance
than the latter’s greater energy of impact, for deer are very easily
killed if hit in the chest cavity by an expanding bullet, as those are
which are soft-nosed or hollow-pointed. The latter is much the better
principle for deer, because expansion is then caused as much by striking
the soft flesh or the skin as it is by striking a bone. The cause of the
expansion in the latter case is hydraulic pressure, increased with the
velocity of the bullet, through the 87 per cent. of water of the deer’s
flesh.
[Illustration:
A SCOTTISH DEER HEAD OF UNUSUALLY HEAVY BEAM—A THIRTEEN POINTER
]
[Illustration:
A FINE WILDLY TYPICAL NINE POINT SCOTTISH HEAD OF 38 INCH SPAN
]
[Illustration: