He who dies with the most toys wins

My first article on this multi-faceted subject (The most dangerous game, November 2021) ended with Emperor Maximilian I – the finest huntsman of his age – and a sort of last flowering of the fabled huntsman of legend who went mano a mano with the many quarry species he pursued. He was not only obsessed with hunting, but he was also an exceptional shot, recording in his game-book that he once killed 100 wild duck with 104 crossbow bolts, although, and more of this later, those duck would have been stationary or floating and not airborne.

Furthermore, Maximilian was like most huntsmen of most ages in that he loved tradition and sought perfection, but was also fascinated by the latest technology. So while he sounded off about not using new-fangled guns – he liked to boast about killing a chamois at 200 yards with a crossbow that a fellow hunter had just missed with a gun – one of the earliest-known paintings of a firearm (a handgun with a burning match that swivelled to ignite the powder) being