30 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



afternoon on waterhen or rabbits, and found it shoot well — 

 though for such work, or for driven birds, one naturally prefers 

 a gun weighing 6^ lbs. to one weighing y^ lbs. 



No wildfowler can afford to be without a heavy 12-bore 

 chambered for the "Perfect" brass cases. Here is a gun, of 

 all others, which is indispensable. 



No less an authority than " Fleur-de-Lys " has recorded 

 his opinion in an unmistakable way. Writing in the Field, he 

 says : — 



" Sir, — With regard to C. P.'s query in last week's Field, I think 

 he could not do better than go to Messrs. J. and W. Tolley for one of 

 their wildfowl 12-bores chambered and bored for the long " Perfects." 

 I am using one of these brass case guns now for the second season, 

 and its power is simply astonishing. I gave up the larger bores 

 principally because of their unsuitability for quick shots at single 

 birds (especially snipe). My Tolley's 12-bore weighs a little over 

 8 lb., and has 30-in. steel barrels, choked to give the closest possible 

 shooting. It performs extremely well with 50 grs. Amberite or 3I drs. 

 black, and \\ oz. No. i or No. 4 Newcastle chilled shot. With the 

 ordinary short paper cases it also shoots well, and I always use these 

 for snipe and cripple-stopping. I have not found that changing from 

 an 8-bore to a 12 has at all diminished my sport among the ducks, 

 for the lighter gun shoots No i so admirably that one is able to com- 

 mand almost the same range ; and shots into big flocks, where the 

 heavier 8-bore charge would tell, are such rare events with the shore- 

 shooter nowadays that they need scarcely enter into his calculations. 

 Last winter I several times got two, twice three, and once four duck to 

 one barrel, and that at ranges of from fifty yards to sixty yards ; for the 

 fowl along the foreshore where 1 shoot are much harried. For snipe- 

 shooting the gun is just as handy as a light paper-case twelve — at least 

 I miss about the same proportion with either weapon. It adds immensely 

 to one's pleasure being able to tackle single birds ; and for this reason 

 alone I consider the 12-bore is immeasurably superior to the 8 or 10. 

 Messrs. J. and W. Tolley can build a 12-bore to put about fifty pellets 

 of No. I into a foot square at forty yards : and No i is, I am convinced, 

 the shore-shooter's trump card; an ounce and a half contains 156 

 pellets, and at eighty yards they will go through a duck like bullets, 

 while the pattern at this distance is so satisfactory that a shot into a 



