PUNT-GUNS 173 
drawn to some large fowling-pieces which loaded at the 
breech, and these dating back to almost the first days of 
the gun. 
The professional fowlers who use large guns invariably 
have muzzle-loading ones, no doubt well knowing that as punt- 
guns they can have nothing better for their purpose as far as 
shooting and a shot at fowl are concerned, and, moreover, they 
are cheap compared with breech-loading guns and cost less to 
use. These are advantages which for a poor fowler would 
dispose of any argument to the contrary. 
Some of the many kinds of breech-loading guns on the 
market we intend to deal with later; also a few methods 
of converting muzzle-loading guns to breech-loaders, chiefly 
for the benefit of amateurs of moderate means and who wish to 
be in a certain sense up to date. Ammunition for punt-guns 
will also require dealing with in another chapter. 
The question of how to throw a large quantity of shot at 
fowl to best advantage I have before remarked upon. It is 
undoubted that 3lb. of shot thrown from two tubes, 14} lb. 
each, will generally do more execution than if all discharged 
from one large tube. If the double gun be built so that 
the barrels discharge quickly one after the other, and their 
killing circles at a fair range eclipse each other, there should 
be little trouble in seeing that such a discharge will be 
more disastrous to fowl than if all thrown at once and in one 
large circle. In the case of a shot with a double punt-gun 
of such action as described, directed at sitting fowl, the result 
will be that the first shot takes them on the ground, and the 
other the instant they spring. Also it may easily be seen that 
where the gun is sighted (which should be at the densest part 
of fowl) the shot will be thickest, since the killing circles 
of shot from each barrel overlap. It may be needless to add 
that large quantities of shot are required where fowl are very 
plentiful. 
