SPOBTING GUNS. 



[Nov., 



holding down bolts are forced home by a spring, and the barrels thus 

 firmly gripped to the breech action. The gun when fired automati- 

 cally ejects its fired case. Self-acting safety-bolts are legion ; but as 

 they are automatic one way only, their advantage has been disputed ; 

 so also have been the advantages of metallic cases over paper ; and 

 these two questions, like many others connected with gunnery, are yet 

 * unproven.' 



In the choice of a gun, the foremost consideration is to obtain the 

 lightest weapon efficient to kill the game required. To get this, not 

 only must the very best material be employed throughout, but also 

 the best, strongest, and lightest mechanisms employed. For a breech 

 action, there is none that combines lightness with strength in a 

 greater degree than does W. W. Greene's Treble Wedge Fast System, 



EJECTING HAMMERLESS GUN. 



* the strongest extant.'* Good and well-shaped barrels are next in 

 importance, as they give poise to the gun : no greater mistake can be 

 made than to have a badly-balanced gun too heavy for the shooter. 



A well-balanced, properly proportioned and carefullj^ bored gun 

 will give less recoil, and be lighter in the hand than an ill-balanced 

 badly constructed one twenty ounces lighter. 



Makers of reputation having mastered not only the details of 

 building in proportion, but the theories of balistics, produce the lightest 

 and safest of guns and the most efficient. 



The cost of firearms is dependent more upon the care expended in 



accurately proportioning and fitting the various components than in 



the beauty of the finish : therefore the logical inference to be 



drawn is, to avoid light, cheap guns, or cheap small-bore guns, as they 



* Vide ' The Gun and its Development '—p. 211. 



