GENERAL REMARKS 25 



added the fact that all gunmakers test the shooting of their 

 guns with that explosive, it must be conceded " villainous salt- 

 petre " is in front of the nitro compound for giving absolutely 

 more certain and uniform results. Judging from a great 

 number of shots fired at the plate, I do not put the difference 

 greater than three per cent, in favour of the black powder : 

 i.e., in every hundred nitro cartridges there will be found three 

 which give unaccountably small results on the plate, while the 

 whole hundred of black powder ones will be as nearly alike as 

 possible. Thus, supposing there were two absolutely perfect 

 shooters, then the nitro man would be a hundred and fifty head 

 of game behind the " black " man by the time each had used 

 five thousand cartridges. In return for this difference, which 

 would be spread over many days of sport, the nitro man will 

 have enjoyed freedom from dirt, smoke, foul smell, noise, 

 recoil, and perhaps headache, and personally we would prefer 

 to accept the hundred and fifty misses than face the ills we 

 have enumerated. The foregoing is, however, based entirely 

 on practice at the plate, but we think in the field matters 

 would be more than equalized by the absence of smoke and 

 the consequently greater number of good second barrel chances 

 offering themselves to the users of the nitro compound. 



So great, indeed, can the smoke nuisance become that we 

 well remember, at a rabbit shoot in cover at Ragley Hall, 

 being placed between two "black" men on a still, damp day, 

 and the bunnies coming fast, in a few minutes all three of us 

 were absolutely unable to see, and had to cease fire. 



We also think the nitros send the shot up to the mark 

 slightly quicker than black powder does, which enables many 

 to make better shooting with the former than the latter, as 

 this almost infinitesimal result often makes all the difference 

 between shot striking the head or the tail. Whichever powder 

 be used, slick to it, and do not try first a few cartridges of one 

 kind and then a few of another, for such chopping and chang- 

 ing will surely spoil anyone's shooting. It is also certain that 



