TRAP-SHOOTING. 297 
powder have not heretofore been restricted, al- 
though it is unreasonable to match a light field-gun, 
loaded with three drachms, against a fourteen-pound 
ducking-gun, driving its charge of No. 10 shot with 
six drachms of powder. The load of shot should not 
be over one ounce and a quarter ; but even with this 
restriction the heavy guns will have the advantage, 
being able to send fine shot stronger, and have the 
benefit of the extra quantity of pellets. The size of 
shot in light guns is generally No. 7, with three 
and a quarter drachms of powder. The guns are 
loaded in the presence of a judge selected for the 
purpose, and the shot is poured into a measured 
charger; but with breech-loaders, as the cartridges 
are already prepared, it is customary to select one 
of the latter at random and open it. 
A good shot will frequently kill twenty single 
birds in succession, and some persons who have 
made this sport their specialty have been known to 
kill many more; but the majority of excellent sports- 
men will not kill over nineteen out of twenty. The 
best field-shots are often bunglers at trap-shoot- 
ing. Where double birds are shot at, it is rare that 
twenty are killed without a miss, and an excellent 
average out of ten double rises would be seventeen 
birds. The second bird is frequently so far off ere 
he is fired at, that, even if hit, he will go out of 
bounds and be recorded as missed, although he falls 
dead. In this shooting there is much in accident, 
not only as to the bird’s falling out of bounds, but 
as to the mode of flight ; for if both birds go directly 
13* 
