CHAPTER IV 



THE COMPLETE GUN-ROOM 



If a gun is a friend to a man, if he knows and cares all about 

 its personality and ways, then that goes some way to prove that 

 he is a genuine sportsman — and in the particular instance of 

 this book, a true Wildfowler. 



One's guns are one's friends. They have been companions 

 of many night watches in darkling and dawn, in cold moonlit 

 midnights, bitter winds, ice-cold hours, and the roaring 

 tempests of God. One loves their gracefulness (to many of 

 us a perfect gun is the most beautiful thing that skilled handi- 

 craft can produce), and utter efficiency, combined with perfect 

 execution, is indeed a wonder of this day. 



The furious passions of chemic things arC' let loose by the 

 sure action of the most studious inventions, by the supremest 

 nicety of mechanism, refined and brought to perfection by 

 hundreds of brains and innumerable experiments, and to say 

 that a gun is a thermo-dynamic engine by which the potential 

 energy of the explosive is converted into the kinetic energy of 

 the projectile, is merely to define and not describe a gun. 



Sporting weapons require, and receive from all 

 ^^GmJ^ good sportsmen, the very greatest care and special- 

 ised treatment. A good gun which might last the 

 best part of a lifetime is as easily ruined by bad usage as 

 a watch. The gun-room and its appliances are of supreme 

 importance. 



By far the best way in which to keep guns is in a special 

 cupboard made for the purpose, in which the guns stand fitted 



42 



