The Black Rifle (Perry County Frontier series) by Chandler Roy F

Author:Chandler, Roy F. [Chandler, Roy F.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Katherine R. Chandler
Published: 2012-01-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Shooting

Rob Shatto sat atop his winter depleted woodpile and watched Jack Elan reloading his black rifle. The sun lay warm on his shoulders, and he enjoyed the physical lethargy that came with the year’s first spring days.

They had scouted carefully before beginning their shooting, and Rob had seen no Indian sign, not that prowling hostiles left much of a trail. Over the years he had sharpened his eye until he figured it would take a mighty lucky Indian to prowl his land undetected. Indians moved with destinations in mind. They tended to stick to established trails, and if lacking human paths, they followed game trails. War parties wishing to be undetected did exactly the opposite, which meant that dangerous passings were often found in least likely areas. If you knew the land and Indian thinking, a skilled searcher did not have to re-explore every inch of ground every day. Rob Shatto had scouted his valley since his youth, and he had hunted game and on occasion hostiles on that land for most of his days.

Jack Elan still could hardly tell where a man had tromped across a plowed field. Rob frowned a little, not liking the thoughts that crowded his mind.

He watched Elan dump powder charges into each rifle barrel and nodded approval.

There was a touch of danger in loading two barrels. A man could, by accident, double charge one barrel and not have anything in the second tube. A rifle barrel could stand double charging, even triple charges, and not blow up, but pulling down on an important shot and discovering you had only an empty barrel could be discouraging. A hunter had to know how to load and how to do it fast. A game animal would not wait for a slow hunter, and an enemy could be on you before careful powder measuring was complete.

Elan did it well. His gun handling was smooth and sure. It was plain that he had been practicing in the dark and with his eyes shut—the way he had been told. A hunter, whether searching for four or two-legged targets, should not have to look as his hands worked. His eyes should be on his game or his enemy, and when the rifle rose it would be loaded and cocked.

The shooting was going along all right. Jack would never be a natural rifleman, but he was getting faster, and he was sure. At shorter ranges, what Elan fired at was hit.

They worked little at long range shooting. It took a lot of time, powder, and balls to learn to hold into wind and to figure how far a ball would drop at different ranges. As Elan’s plan called for short, quick shooting, they put anything over one hundred yards aside—for the time being.

As Rob watched, Elan finished loading and took a position some forty yards from their bark-slab target. At Rob’s nod, Jack walked swiftly toward the target, head moving left and right as though the target was unseen. At Rob’s sudden whistle, Elan raised his rifle and instantly fired at the target.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.