38 FIELD SHOOTING. 



cheap gun, and I do not recommend cheap guns; 

 but when a man cannot afford an expensive one, 

 a cheap gun is a good deal better than none, or 

 than an old "Brown Bess" musket. For some 

 years after 1 went to Illinois as well as before, I 

 never shot with any but common guns. I killed 

 plenty of game, and could always sell a gun when 

 it was pretty well worn out for as much as I had 

 paid for it. Men looking at the size of the bunch 

 of grouse or ducks I brought in, or at the twenty 

 brace of quail to which I stinted myself in the 

 oak barrens on the Sangamon, thought it was the 

 gun which accounted for the success, and were ready 

 to buy it. Afterwards I got a Greener gun, one of 

 the best muzzle-loaders that I have ever seen. I 

 paid one hundred and twenty-five dollars for it, 

 and it had but one fault. It weighed seven pounds 

 and a half, which is too light for my estimate of 

 excellence. It kicked when pretty heavily charged, 

 and kept my finger and cheek sore. But it was a 

 close-shooting, hard-hitting gun, and when the 

 breech-loaders came out I would not have swapped 

 it for a hundred of them. I thought they would 

 not put their shot regular and close, and that they 

 would lack penetration. I have since completely 

 changed that opinion. I was then ready to shoot 



