PUNT-GUNS 177 



the reason why steel is now so largely used in preference to 

 iron. 



Punt-guns are bored both choke and cylinder. With the 

 choke-bored guns, closer shooting is, of course, the result, 

 though I question if, in the case of a punt-gun, any great 

 advantage is found in this. 



Reference must now be made to the double swivel-gun. 

 Very large punt-guns are nowadays not so much in requisition 

 on British waters as formerly, owing, possibly, to the irregular 

 frequency of large packs of fowl. Single guns of a calibre 

 ranging from one and a half to two inches, are found quite 

 large enough, and suit well for general purposes. Very large 

 guns have no great advantage unless used where fowl are 

 unusually plentiful. It has been pointed out that a double 

 gun throwing, say, thirty ounces of shot from both barrels at 

 or about the same moment will generally kill more fowl than 

 the same quantity of lead fired from a single tube. This may 

 be theorised by saying that the shape of the pattern made by 

 both barrels of a double gun is elliptical. The killing circles 

 half eclipse each other. This causes the greater portion of the 

 shot to strike where the patterns overlap. In practice the 

 centre of the double pattern is that part required to hit the 

 thickest part of a company of fowl. Consequently, the double 

 pattern of a double gun will cause greater havoc amongst 

 fowl well placed, than an open and more scattered pattern from 

 a single gun shooting a charge which the double gun fires 

 from both barrels. It might be said that an advantage exists 

 in the double gun being able to concentrate a close pattern 

 where the fowl are grouped, and a more open pattern where 

 they are more scattered. This could never be done with 

 a single gun. In the matter of expense, also, the double 

 punt-gun has an advantage over a single, for it is possible 

 to fire one barrel, that is to say, a comparatively small charge 

 of shot, at a small company of fowl. The oval pattern made 



