PETERSFIELD, Saturday, July 13.
A NOVEL RIFLE SHOT—FROM THE BULL’S EYE TO THE RABBIT’S EYE.—ln the present day rifle shooting is carried on to a degree of exactness so opposite to the efficiency of our fathers— the Volunteers of the first French Empire— as well as of the power and capacity of ‟Old Brown Boss.” We, therefore, may be allowed to note a somewhat strange instance of exact aim with the rifle, as exemplified a few evenings back by a practical marksman, at the distance of 300 yards, upon a rabbit, at which distance the old musket, in the hands of the old Volunteers, would scarcely have hit a haystack, and likely to have grounded its ball at half the distance or sent it wide of the mark. The instance in question, was upon the return of three of the 12th Hants Rifle Volunteers, viz., Captain Seward, Serjeant Caplin, and Corporal Carter, from Helmington Bottom, after practice firing at the rifle butts. The party named had just passed the deep cutting of the turnpike road at Butser Hill, when a rabbit was espied feeding upon the high bank of the old road, on the right, and across the field belonging to the captain. It was thereupon decided that Serjeant Caplin should have a shot; upon which the rifle was loaded, sighted, levelled, and the trigger pulled, when, instantaneously after the crack, ‟Bunny” was observed tumbling down the embankment. Upon going to the spot it was found that the bullet had passed through both eyes, proving to a dead certainty that sharp work for the eyes had taken place, both to the quadruped and biped.