20 SPORTSMAN'S HAND BOOK. 



but setting, I think, does not go back much more than one 

 hundred years. My father began to work as a fine borer in 

 the year 1793. Setting was known then, but not generally. 

 He had to pay for the secret. According to my father, a 

 man named P. Parsons was the first to set barrels that he 

 had heard of. He worked at Duddeston Mill, being what 

 was called a "best workman " at sporting barrels. This 

 Mr. Parsons used at first, for the purpose of setting, a 

 string or wire which was drawn tight by a bow, or other- 

 wise, and applied to the inside of the barrel. By this means 

 he discovered the crooks, and then corrected them with a 

 hammer. The process of fine boring is the same now as it 

 was in 1793; that is, it is done with a square bit, but only 

 two edges cut, and only one at a time. The advantage of 

 taking off the edges was said to be discovered about 1790, 

 by Mr. Beesley, and this was kept a secret among good work- 

 men for a long time. I think we may be sure that boring 

 and setting had not attained their present perfection until 

 the beginning of the present century. 



In the year 1787 there were twenty-seven gun-makers in 

 Birmingham, and barrels were made, bored and ground at 

 water mills all round the town. Such mills still exist, 

 chiefly in the neighborhood of Hales Owen, where large 

 numbers of barrels are now made. I have not touched on 

 the subject of rolled barrels, which are chiefly used for mili- 

 tary fire-arms and the commoner sort of sporting guns. The 

 rolling of barrels from short taper skelps, a foot or more in 

 length, is comparatively a recent process. The barrel is 

 drawn over an oval headed mandrel, so fixed that its head 

 is immediately between the grooves of the upper and under 

 roll. These grooves are of a shape corresponding to the 

 outline of the barrel. Of late years, steel barrels have come 

 very much into use for rifles, but to a very small extent for 

 sporting guns as^well, the want of " figure" operating much 



