24 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



— it is but little wider than the single case, and when taken 

 where it is certain but one gun will be wanted in the field, 

 there is always satisfaction in feeling doubly guarded in the 

 event of a breakdown. Such a mishap has only happened to 

 us once — not with a Grant gun — and one frosty morning in 

 Argyllshire a hammer flew in two, and having only the one 

 gun, and no gunsmith nearer than Glasgow, to the village 

 blacksmith it was taken, and between us we made a new 

 hammer, which answered the purpose well enough, although 

 not quite with the London finish on it. 



Many shooters suffer from the bruising of the middle finger 

 of the trigger-hand, and in most cases this is a matter of a 

 badly shaped trigger -guard, which any good maker should 

 easily rectify. The fault lies either in the length or the 

 breadth of the guard, and can usually be cured by sloping it, 

 so that when the recoil takes place, the finger slides forward 

 instead of being struck ; and yet with such simple remedies at 

 hand many are content to go year after year in pain and dis- 

 comfort, until at last a permanent enlargement of the joint, or 

 an open wound, forces them to go to some gunsmith with a 

 head on his shoulders, and there is hardly a case of this sort 

 that cannot be cured. 



On the matter of explosives the author thinks it also wiser 

 to say but little. For the past twenty-five years he has used 

 Schultze, and during that time has not had a dozen cartridges 

 "go puff" and barely drive the shot from the barrel, as is 

 often to be heard of This he attributes to taking care not 

 only that the cartridges have been properly loaded, but have 

 also been kept thoroughly dry ; and when going on visits, if 

 an inspection of a strange gun-room has led to the conclusion 

 it was a damp one, then the ammunition has been removed to 

 the butler's pantry or some other dry place. Many first-class 

 shots, headed, we believe, by Lords De Grey and Walsingham, 

 still use the old-fashioned black powder,* and if to this be 



♦ This and the following page was written in 1892, before nitro compounds had 

 come into universal use for home sport. 



