SHOT, POWDER, SHELLS, WADS AND LOADING. 329 
Large sized shot are but little used among experi- 
enced shots at the present day, and it is seldom indeed 
that any larger than 4’s are used for ducks. For a 
great many years this was my favorite size; then I 
drifted into using 5’s, but becoming so much in love 
with decoys, I allowed the current of experience to 
carry me still farther toward the haven of success, and 
there | am anchored, and have pinned my faith to No. 
6. The reader must bear in mind, that the great im- 
provement in the shooting powers of guns of the 
present day allows us to decrease the quantity of shot, 
thereby increasing the penetration, without sacrificing 
the pattern. It is therefore unnecessary to load with 
1 1-2 and 1 1-4 oz. shot as we did in muzzle-loading 
days; and we find we obtain better results with 1 oz. 
and 1 1-8 in our choke bore guns. While the shooter 
may at times make extraordinary long shots with 3's 
and 4’s, still, he wing tips so many that the delights of 
the hunt are in a measure lost at sight of the birds 
escaping crippled, only to perish in a lingering death. 
This will not happen so often with 6’s and with them 
one can kill at any reasonable distance ; while shooting 
over decoys they are all that could be desired. At such 
a time close or high shots are equally within reach. 
Shot as manufactured at the present time is both soft 
and hard, or, as it is called, ‘soft’ and “ chilled.” 
For a number of years the impression was sown 
broadeast that chilled shot was injurious to gun barrels. 
Ever since its introduction I have shot it constantly 
both in the field and at the trap, using sizes from 10's 
to No. 2’s and find nothing injurious about it. It is far 
preferable to soft; being hard, it retains its rotundity 
better, and as a matter of course, penetrates farther 
