CHOKE-BORES. 293 



himself, and though a very much better shot than the 

 average of duck-shooters, he actually fired the gun ten 

 times without killing a bird — crippled one mallard 

 and returned to the boat disgusted. The chief cause 

 of his numerous misses lay in the fact that the gun 

 shot about six inches high at forty yards, and he was 

 unaware of it. The ducks were very plenty on the 

 same evening, and with his gun I killed seventy-five 

 between half an hour before sundown and dark, 

 hardly ever getting time to load both barrels, and had 

 I had my own gun with plenty of ammunition, and 

 been able to shoot it right, could very likely have 

 nearly doubled the number. From that time I re- 

 solved to learn to use my own gun, and after a short 

 time ' ' got the hang of it, ' ' the chief difficulty at first 

 being to remember to aim low. Fred changed to the 

 single gun too, and before we got to New Madrid, 

 Mo., our southern destination, we could kill close 

 shots as well as with any gun, and long ones where the 

 other guns were out of the sport entirely. In the 

 swamps back of New Madrid Ave spent the winter, 

 making havoc among the ducks and geese returning 

 North in the spring, and at the close of the season I 

 returned to my home in the East. 



During the ensuing summer and fall I purchased 

 from Messrs. Tonks and W. R. Schaefer, another 



