172 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
going amiss, also that the cost of firing worked out to be much 
less per shot than in the case of breech-loaders of the same 
size, apart from the fact that the muzzle-loading guns them- 
selves were, as a rule, about half the price of the first breech- 
loading punt-guns on the market. 
It will thus be seen that the muzzle-loading swivel-guns 
died a very hard death indeed with even rich amateurs. 
Nowadays the breech-loading punt-gun has found a footing 
which, no doubt, it will hold to the end of guns and punting. 
The advantages of even a modern breech-loading punt-gun 
over a muzzle-loader are not so great as many uninitiated in 
the art of punting would be led to surmise ; nevertheless, such 
are the advantages of breech-loading guns that with well-to-do 
amateurs they are universally employed. Certain it is that the 
breech-loading punt-guns of good sound working design are 
more pleasant to use than muzzle-loaders for many reasons. 
They can, in the case of large guns, be loaded without 
unshipping ropes, and a great point lies in the fact that the 
cartridge can be changed on sight of fowl, according to size 
of shot most suitable to kill them. Speedy loading is, 
perhaps, another advantage. This used to be much empha- 
sised by gunmakers in the sale of their goods; but to the 
practised fowler it is thought of little note, as not more than 
once in a hundred times does a chance occur for another punt 
shot immediately after a first discharge. 
Breech-loading guns can be loaded in rough water; yet 
rough water is not what a punter ever wishes to find. Although 
we should not care to use a muzzle-loading punt-gun again, 
we do not consider the advantage of the breech-loader as 
essential as some consider it. We find, whatever the case 
may be, breech-loading guns are foremost with amateurs 
—perhaps more generally because such weapons are of 
more modern production than anything else. It would be 
well to state, however, that we have had our attention 
