CHAPTER II. 



GUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 



I coutD never see any use to the shooter in a 

 long theoretical or practical description of the 

 principles and details of guns as they are made. 

 All such knowledge is necessary to the gunmaker, 

 but of no practical use at all to the shooter, for 

 which reason I shall say next to nothing about it. 

 It is no more essential to the marksman or young 

 sportsman that he should understand the mecha- 

 nism and mode of manufacturing guns, than it is 

 that he should determine whether the Chinese or 

 Roger Bacon first invented gunpowder before he 

 shall fire a shot off. Sportsmen may safely leave 

 such matters to the gunmakers, who are nearly 

 everywhere a very ingenious, painstaking, trust- 

 worthy class of men. There is no handicraft in 

 which more care is displayed or more ambition 

 felt to excel. The improvements and ingenious 

 devices which have so rapidly followed one an- 

 other of late years, all proceeding from members of 



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