44 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



of, and few people realise how easily an expensive pair of tubes 

 can be bulged ever so slightly, but sufficiently to ruin their 

 shooting, by being dropped. The fowler, moreover, brings 

 back his weapons in a very different state from those of the 

 ordinary sportsman, and it behoves him to take the greater 

 care and to deal with them personally. 



If a gun is wet it should be wiped dry at once with the most 

 scrupulous care. No single part should be left unnoticed, and 

 minute attention should be paid to parts such as the inside of 

 the trigger-guard, the triggers themselves, and the part of the 

 plate underneath the top-lever which is hidden by the lever 

 when the gun is closed, but exposed when open. There is, 

 moreover, a certain part of the gun often overlooked by 

 sportsmen when wiping a gun dry, and yet a part in which 

 minute and unnoticed particles of water often collect and cause 

 dangerous rust. I refer to the angle made by the rib with the 

 curve of the barrels on each side. 



An ordinary cloth passed over the barrels is far too coarse 

 to penetrate these minute crevices, and as a result the water 

 gets left. 



There are two ways of getting over this trouble, neither 

 of which have I seen mentioned in any shooting work. 

 One is to run a fine dry camel's-hair paint-brush from breech 

 to muzzle on each side of the rib. This collects the water and 

 pushes it up in small beads upon the curve of the barrels, when 

 the ordinary cloth readily removes it. 



The other, and surer way, is an invention or plan of my 

 own. I procured a very thin and worn sixpence and had it 

 soldered to a steel rod about as thick and long as an ordinary 

 lead-pencil. A piece of silk placed over the angle made by the 

 rib with the barrels can be pressed down into the crevice 

 with this simple tool and run up to the muzzle in a second or 

 two, completely mopping up all the water. 



To clean the barrels use a cleaning-rod with tow and oil. 



