56 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 
It happened that one hammer of the writer’s breech- 
loader was broken and so badly mended that it did 
not fall true upon the pin, and yet the only miss-fires 
he has ever met with arose from his own neglect, in 
omitting to recap one or two of the discharged 
cartridges beforereloading. Theaverage of miss-fires 
with a cartridge is asserted by Mr. Eley, the cele- 
brated gun-maker, to be one in a thousand—an asser- 
tion openly made, and, as yet, uncontroverted, and 
which is confirmed by the experience of the writer 
and his friends. So far from the pin’s being liable 
to fall out by any exertion whatever, even if the 
sportsman turned acrobat for the nonce, it is simply 
to be said that it cannot be withdrawn with the 
fingers, and requires a small pair of pliers. 
“Tf in drawing out an unexploded cartridge the 
brass end comes off or breaks away from the paper 
case, it will not be advisable to use the cartridge in 
that state: it cannot be safe to explode it in the 
barrel of a breech-loading gun; in fact, it would be 
almost as unsafe as a loose charge of powder. And 
in the event of the cap missing fire in a breech-load- 
ing cartridge, it is not desirable to recap the car. 
tridge. When once the brass and the pasteboard 
part company, the power of retaining the explosive 
force within the case is considerably weakened, and 
so is the expulsive force.” 
On reading the foregoing, one would suppose the 
author of such statements had never seen a breech- 
loader. Where the brass end breaks away from the 
paper case, the cap comes off with it, and the car- 
