6 SHOOTING. 



stub-twist is considered the best ; but it is nov/ both high-priced, 

 and, like most articles of value, liable to considerable adulteration. 

 When it can be had in any degree of purity, most gun-makers are 

 incHned to give it a decided preference both for shooting purposes 

 and safety. 



]\li-. Greener has furnished a test, by which spurious gun-metal 

 may be detected from the real stub-twist non. He says, " Requure 

 the gmi-maker to stain the barrel under examination mth the 

 smoJce-brown ( a staumig composition of which he gives an account 

 in his book) and he will not be able to accomplish it, if the barrel 

 be not genmne ; whereas nothing is easier, if it be really made of 

 stubs twisted. The matter may be thus explamed; hydrogen 

 gas acts only on iron, steel resists its action ; so that, when a 

 barrel is properly finished, the steel remains quite bright, wlule 

 the iron has become a beautiful jet-black, which will be easily re- 

 cognised by attention to the appearance." 



The proving or testing of gun-barrels is such a vital matter to 

 all who have to use them, either for amusement, or war, that tlie 

 legislatui-e has been obliged to step in, and endeavoiir to secui-e in- 

 dividuals from serious injuries, and often from certain death itself. 

 It is not always from a defect of the metal of which a lowhug-piece 

 is made that danger springs ; a defect in the workmanship_ is 

 equally pregnant with serious consequences. For a long period 

 this country suffered severely from the want of proper attention to 

 the subject ; but the gun-makers themselves took the matter up, and 

 established a proof-house by which barrels could be tested. In 

 1813, this trade was incorporated by Act of Parliament ; and by 

 the powers granted to it, it was made penal to sell any gun without 

 having it first proved at one of the proof-houses estabhshed by the 

 company in London and Bnming-ham. But these enactments 

 were evaded ; and such great . quantities of unsafe guns were 

 thrown on the market, that the legislature had again to come to the 

 rescue, and pass, in 1815, another more sti-ingeut enactment. "It 

 was enacted that no barrel should be received by any person to rib, 

 stock, or finish, that had not been duly proved, under a penalty of 

 20/." It was also enacted that all barrels shall be sent immediately 

 from the maker to the proof-house before the same shall be sold, 

 or transmitted for sale to any person whatever. A penalty of 20/. 

 is attached to the breach of this clause ; and it fui-ther visits with 

 the like penalty any one receiviag such barrel to make up. The 

 act also imposed the same penalty upon the forger of the proof- 

 mark of the London company, or that of the Birmingham company. 



We do not feel inclined to enter into the cliief modes of manu- 

 facturing fowling-pieces, such as the boriag and moulding them. 

 These matters he, in our opinion, beyond the provmce of the 

 sportsman. But there are stiH a variety of things connected with 

 his gun, so vitally interesting to himself to know, that we shall 

 TCnture to enumerate some of them, without entermg into nice 

 speculations, or fractional or fasti^ous differences. Our main 



