Travels In The United States Of America; Commencing In The Year 1793, And Ending In 1797. With The Author's Journals Of His Two Voyages Across The Atlantic By William Priest
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The Barrel, Mounting, And Lock, Should Be Covered With A Composition, To
Render Them As Dull, And As Little Discernible, As Possible.
The locks
should always be in the very best firing order, and constructed to give
fire as easily as the nature of the service will admit.
Oil, for the
inside of the rifle, should be regularly served; and the flints should be
of a much better quality than those used in muskets.
POWDER.
Every thing depends upon this article's being of an uniform degree of
strength: it should be of the best quality, but not glazed.
ACCOUTREMENTS AND DRESS,
Cannot be better than those used by the rifle corps in this country,
except perhaps that the latter should be of a dusky green, the colour died
in the Highlands of Scotland for plaids; even the cap should be of this
colour: a sort of helmet, constructed so as to afford a rest to fire from,
when lying on the belly.
EXERCISE, &c.
It may perhaps be presumption in me to say any thing on this subject; but
I cannot help thinking it should be the _reverse_ of what is used in
the Line. They should be encamped as much as possible in a woody country,
as the art of _freeing_, as the back woodsmen call it, is one of
their best manoeuvres. Their whole time should be taken up in the
_real_ study of their profession, not in powdering, pipeclaying,
blacking, polishing, and such military fopperies.
The rifle out of the question, I do not think _slow, deliberate firing_
sufficiently attended to in the english army.
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