44 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
of, and few people realise how easily an expensive pair of tubes 
can be bulged ever so slightly, but sufficiently to ruin their 
shooting, by being dropped. The fowler, moreover, brings 
back his weapons in a very different state from those of the 
ordinary sportsman, and it behoves him to take the greater 
care and to deal with them personally. 
If a gun is wet it should be wiped dry at once with the most 
scrupulous care. No single part should be left unnoticed, and 
minute attention should be paid to parts such as the inside of 
the trigger-guard, the triggers themselves, and the part of the 
plate underneath the top-lever which is hidden by the lever 
when the gun is closed, but exposed when open. There is, 
moreover, a certain part of the gun often overlooked by 
sportsmen when wiping a gun dry, and yet a part in which 
minute and unnoticed particles of water often collect and cause 
dangerous rust. I refer to the angle made by the rib with the 
curve of the barrels on each side. 
An ordinary cloth passed over the barrels is far too coarse 
to penetrate these minute crevices, and as a result the water 
gets left. 
There are two ways of getting over this trouble, neither 
of which have I seen mentioned in any shooting work. 
One is to run a fine dry camel’s-hair paint-brush from breech 
to muzzle on each side of the rib. This collects the water and 
pushes it up in small beads upon the curve of the barrels, when 
the ordinary cloth readily removes it. 
The other, and surer way, is an invention or plan of my 
own. I procured a very thin and worn sixpence and had it 
soldered to a steel rod about as thick and long as an ordinary 
lead-pencil. A piece of silk placed over the angle made by the 
rib with the barrels can be pressed down into the crevice 
with this simple tool and run up to the muzzle in a second or 
two, completely mopping up all the water. 
To clean the barrels use a cleaning-rod with tow and oil. 
