A/i Unpublished Manuscript of I'ra)ik Fo7'cstcrs. 



facility given by the celerity of fire to 

 the gunner, that a first-rate gnn is by 

 no means now necessary, as it was 

 thirty years ago, to the sportsman — for 

 the weapon in all its grades is reduced 

 far more nearly to an equality, and 

 there is — so far is certainly true — prob- 

 ably less difference in the carriage and 

 quickness of fire now between the best 

 London gun that can be turned out and 

 the ordinary percussion soldier's mus- 

 ket, than there was in Joe Manton's 

 day, between a really first-rate flint and 

 the best third-rate gun that could be 

 produced — that is to say less difference 

 between fifty guineas and fourteen 

 shillings, in 1852, than there was be- 

 tween sixty guineas, Joe's piece, and 

 twenty-fiye or thirty guineas, in 1822. 

 I do not mean to say that a first-rate 

 gun is not still a sina qua non to a first- 

 rate sportsman, and I confess I regard 

 a real lover of the gun, capable of 

 affording to shoot with a first-rate, 

 and yet shooting with a second-rate, 

 much as I do a man who should shoot 

 with flint and steel, when he might 

 shoot with a percussion gun, or who 

 should ride an ass when he could ride 

 an Arabian steed. 



Hear what the veteran Hawker says 

 on this subject, and then mark and 

 perpend: "The gunmakers, in short, 

 still remain as I left them — like the 

 frogs without a king; and, as before, 

 complaining bitterly about the dullness 

 of the trade. But for this they have 

 to thank their introduction of the deto- 

 nating system, by which they got 

 caught themselves in the same trap 

 which was laid for their customers. 

 When flint guns were the order of the 

 day, what sporting gentlemen of any 

 distinction ever thought of using any- 

 thing but the gun of a first-rate maker, 

 for the simple reason that on the good- 



ness of the work depends the quickness 

 in firing and consequently the filling 

 of the bag. But now-a-days every 

 common fellow in a market town can 

 detonate on old musket and make it 

 shoot as quick as can be wished ; 

 insomuch that all scientific calculations 

 in shooting at moderate distances are 

 so simplified, that we every day meet 

 with jackanapes' apprentice boys who 

 shoot flying, and knock down their 

 eight out of ten. Formerly shooting 

 required art and nerve; now for toler- 

 able shooting— rat all events for the use 

 of a single barrel — nerve alone is 

 sufficient. Formerly a first-rate gun 

 was a sine qua non ; now the most we 

 can call it is a desideratum ; since all 

 guns are made now to fire with nearly 

 equal velocity." 



It is this comparative equality be- 

 tween the higher and lower qualities 

 of .percussion guns, and the facility of 

 attaining at least to a moderate degree 

 of proficiency in the art of shooting 

 on the wing with a very second-rate 

 instrument, which leads the masses 

 and inconsiderate persons in general — 

 some sportsmen not excluded — to im- 

 agine that a first-rate gun is of no real 

 importance, because they find them- 

 selves shooting within the ordinary , 

 range at which birds are killed — that is 

 to say, according to my opinion, on 

 an average at from fifteen to twenty 

 paces — nearly as well with a medium 

 gun as their neighbor with one of first 

 rate quality. 



Let them remember, however, that 

 it is in the celerity of fire alone that 

 the percussion principal has in any wise 

 equalized, and that at the expense of 

 detracting somewhat from their force, 

 leaving them in all other points of 

 comparison precisely as they were 

 before, though the celerity certainly 



