SHOT, POWDER, SHELLS, WADS ‘AND LOADING. 327 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
SHOT, POWDER, SHELLS, WADS AND LOADING. 
In the selection of the size of shot for any given 
kind of game, the average hunter is very peculiar in his 
ideas ; and this peculiarity is especially noticeable if 
one will pass a few hours in some village gun store, 
where hunters from that immediate vicinity congregate, 
and buy their ammunition. It seems strange, neverthe- 
less ’tis true, that a beginner almost without exception 
starts out on his voyage of life (in a shooting sense) 
and uses too great a quantity, and too large size of shot. 
Notice the farmer boy, he who delights to stand on pin- 
oak ridges and bang away for hours without bagging a 
bird. When he buys hisshot he abstractedly attacks the 
shot rack, runs his hands into the different compart- 
ments, allows the shot to ooze between his fingers, and 
in reply to the oft-repeated question, “* What size will 
you have?” casts on his juvenile companion a compre- 
hensive look and replies, “Guess we will take 1’s as 
ducks are a little wild.” He takes “ 1’s,” and the gun- 
smith’s kindly suggestion to try 4’s is entirely thrown 
away,—passed by without notice; or, if noticed, un- 
heeded. The boy is not the only one afflicted with 
these strange notions, for the man hunter, the terror of 
the swamps,—he who through the laws of descent has 
become the absolute and unqualified owner of a muzzle 
loader,—he too uses coarse shot, 1’s and 2’s for ducks ; 
