SHOT, POWDER, SHELLS, WADS AND LOADING. 337 
courtesy we offer him a few of our shells to try. He 
declines them on the ground “has plenty of his own.” 
We rather insist, and not to be impolite he accepts 
them. At the same time, he only uses enough, that he 
may not offend us. Why? Simply because he has 
more faith in his own shells than in any other. 
Does the reader intend loading his own shells ?. Tak- 
ing it for granted he does, let us aid him all we can, 
that it may be properly done. First, in loading, say one 
shell at a time, the best loader in my opinion is the Bar- 
clay. This is made of metal, with flanges inside that 
guide the wads, and keep them from tearing down the 
edges of the shells. The rece>tacle for the shell to 
set in is of wood. The base of the shell setting into a 
cavity to hold it securely ; where the cap comes there 
isa hole drilled sufficiently large that by no possible 
means can the edges of the cap touch the hard wood. 
This is a slow process, but accurate. The better 
*way is to buy at some gun store a loading block 
that will load fifty shells at one time. Granting this 
to be done, let us together load fifty shells for duck- 
shooting. Placing the shel! case on a solid foundation, 
perfectly level, we put the 10 ga. shells in. Our 
powder is in a dish or box large at the top so we can 
dip in handily. 4 1-2 dms. are put in each shell 
through a funnel ; then we tap the box lightly with a 
wooden mallet, settling the powder and making all 
charges level. Next, we put in a 10 ga. card wad. 
The reason for doing this is that the wad is dry, con- 
taining no oil, besides, it is stiff, and holds the powder 
compactly. Now, the next wadding must be large, 
thick, and supplied with oil sufficient to slightly lu- 
bricate the barrels. There is a great diversity of opin- 
‘on as to what kind of wads to use at this point in 
oo) 
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