172 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



going amiss, also that the cost of firing worked out to be much 

 less per shot than in the case of breech-loaders of the same 

 size, apart from the fact that the muzzle-loading guns them- 

 selves were, as a rule, about half the price of the first breech- 

 loading punt-guns on the market. 



It will thus be seen that the muzzle-loading swivel-guns 

 died a very hard death indeed with even rich amateurs. 

 Nowadays the breech-loading punt-gun has found a footing 

 which, no doubt, it will hold to the end of guns and punting. 

 The advantages of even a modern breech-loading punt-gun 

 over a muzzle-loader are not so great as many uninitiated in 

 the art of punting would be led to surmise ; nevertheless, such 

 are the advantages of breech-loading guns that with well-to-do 

 amateurs they are universally employed. Certain it is that the 

 breech-loading punt-guns of good sound working design are 

 more pleasant to use than muzzle-loaders for many reasons. 

 They can, in the case of large guns, be loaded without 

 unshipping ropes, and a great point lies in the fact that the 

 cartridge can be changed on sight of fowl, according to size 

 of shot most suitable to kill them. Speedy loading is, 

 perhaps, another advantage. This used to be much empha- 

 sised by gunmakers in the sale of their goods ; but to the 

 practised fowler it is thought of little note, as not more than 

 once in a hundred times does a chance occur for another punt 

 shot immediately after a first discharge. 



Breech-loading guns can be loaded in rough water ; yet 

 rough water is not what a punter ever wishes to find. Although 

 we should not care to use a muzzle-loading punt-gun again, 

 we do not consider the advantage of the breech-loader as 

 essential as some consider it. We find, whatever the case 

 may be, breech-loading guns are foremost with amateurs 

 — perhaps more generally because such weapons are of 

 more modern production than anything else. It would be 

 well to state, however, that we have had our attention 



