PUNT-GUNS 177 
the reason why steel is now so largely used in preference to 
iron. 
Punt-guns are bored both choke and cylinder. With the 
choke-bored guns, closer shooting is, of course, the result, 
though I question if, in the case of a punt-gun, any great 
advantage is found in this. 
Reference must now be made to the double swivel-gun. 
Very large punt-guns are nowadays not so much in requisition 
on British waters as formerly, owing, possibly, to the irregular 
frequency of large packs of fowl. Single guns of a calibre 
ranging from one and a half to two inches, are found quite 
large enough, and suit well for general purposes. Very large 
guns have no great advantage unless used where fowl are 
unusually plentiful. It has been pointed out that a double 
gun throwing, say, thirty ounces of shot from both barrels at 
or about the same moment will generally kill more fowl than 
the same quantity of lead fired from a single tube. This may 
be theorised by saying that the shape of the pattern made by 
both barrels of a double gun is elliptical. The killing circles 
half eclipse each other. This causes the greater portion of the 
shot to strike where the patterns overlap. In practice the 
centre of the double pattern is that part required to hit the 
thickest part of a company of fowl. Consequently, the double 
pattern of a double gun will cause greater havoc amongst 
fowl well placed, than an open and more scattered pattern from 
a single gun shooting a charge which the double gun fires 
from both barrels. It might be said that an advantage exists 
in the double gun being able to concentrate a close pattern 
where the fowl are grouped, and a more open pattern where 
they are more scattered. This could never be done with 
a single gun. In the matter of expense, also, the double 
punt-gun has an advantage over a single, for it is possible 
to fire one barrel, that is to say, a comparatively small charge 
of shot, at a small company of fowl. The oval pattern made 
M 
