GENERAL REMARKS 23 



have been used with heavy charges for coast shooting as 

 well as for pigeon shooting in the spring and summer, and 

 between them must have disposed of upwards of one hundred 

 thousand cartridges ; but they have never been ailing, and 

 shoot as well, and seem as sound, as the day they came out 

 of the shop, and to all appearances are good for another ten 

 years, and it may fairly be asked why they are parted with. 

 The fact is, that at the end of last season, happening to stand 

 next a friend (at a one-gun partridge drive) who carried a 

 hammerless ejector, the author soon saw his neighbour could 

 put in three shots for his two, and liking to keep touch with 

 improvements established as such, he hardened his heart and 

 ordered a pair of twelve-bore hammerless ejectors — Whitworth 

 steel barrels ; weight, six and a quarter pounds ; price, one 

 hundred and thirty pounds. 



For the old pair an allowance of fifty pounds was made, 

 and unless some further extraordinary improvement takes 

 place — and as long as the present explosives are used such 

 seems well-nigh impossible— these new guns will "see him 

 out." Let it be supposed they last fifteen years, and then the 

 gun expenditure for twenty-five years can be added up, the 

 total cost of the two pair, less the fifty pounds allowed, comes 

 to a hundred and ninety pounds, or something under eight 

 pounds a year for the use of a pair of guns for twenty-five 

 years. Surely this is not a very great extravagance for anyone 

 devoted to a pursuit in which safety and success depend so 

 much on the weapon. This calculation, however, is consider- 

 ably over the mark, as nothing has been allowed for the value 

 of the guns at the end of the fifteen years. 



Even should money be very tight, and with most of us 

 it usually is, surely the comfort of a safe, reliable weapon is 

 well worth an extra pound or two a year ; while the difference 

 in price between the dear gun and the cheap one can often be 

 saved by a little self-denial in such trifles as cigars, cabs, etc. 

 Pairs of guns should always be packed in one flat-shaped case 



