THE GUlT. 17^ 



iuto warm water, and well scrubbed with a hard brush, with a free 

 use of fine sand, emery powder, or levigated glass. The rust will 

 efi'ectually be removed and wiU not injure the gun, providing it is 

 but a recent accumulation of rust ; but if it is of long standing, it 

 may have eaten into the core of the metal, and produced vital 

 injury. 



Cleansinc) of Giins. — The attention to the barrel of a gun, to keep 

 it clean, is an important part of a sportsman's duty. Most men 

 liave peculiar methods of their own ; and though all employ the 

 leading or primary elements of cleanliness, yet they differ as to their 

 precise application. On a point so apparently simple, it is astonish- 

 ing to find so many opposite plans, and many of them enforced 

 with a dogmatism and jealous obstinacy that seem vastly out of 

 place on such a matter. The following, among many other methods, 

 IS chosen, because we have found it always to answer the desired 

 end. Provide some boiling water, and an empty pail; detach the 

 barrel from the stock, and with a clearing-rod furnished with tow,, 

 we begin to pour the hot water down each barrel. We scour it well 

 with the clearing rod, and discharge the barrel of the foul water. 

 Place hot water in it a second time, and wipe out the barrels with 

 fresh tow, until they are completely dry, both without and within. 

 Should there be any moisture lurking within the screw-joints of the 

 breech and touch-hole, it is a good plan to let down an iron plug of 

 red heat, which, being moved up and down the barrel or barrels 

 for half a minute, will effectually absorb every particle of moisture 

 or damp. All this should be done by the sportsman's own hand ; 

 and not, if it can be avoided, left to another person to do. There 

 is an old maxim which appKes to gun-preserving very forcibly : 

 " "Wliat a man wishes to have well done, he shoidd do it himself.'' 



How often a gun should be cleaned must depend upon many cir- 

 cumstances. There is a great difference of guns in accumulating 

 dirt. This arises, perhaps, from their different degrees of internal 

 finish. Then, again, we find some kinds of powder foul more than 

 others ; and small shot does the same thing more readily than large. 

 Waddings, too, have an effect ; some keeping the gun comparatively 

 clean much longer than others. It is' commonly maintainedby 

 practical shooters, that a barrel should be cleaned after the firuig 

 of tv:entij shots. JBut there can be no invariable rule laid down in 

 such a case. A man that is careful, that understands what a gun 

 is, and knows the peculiarities of the one he is in the habit of daily 

 using, cannot err very far from the right path in this matter. It is 

 always safe to be over anxious rather than otherwise on a point 

 of such great importance. 



To remove rust from the inside of the barrel, some sportsmen 

 recommend an ashen rod, turned a few inches longer than the 

 barrel, and so nearly of the size of the bore, as to allow of the fol- 

 lowing x)rocess. Let one end of the rod be cut lengthwise, so as 

 to make a slit of six inches long, into which sht enter as much of 

 fine emery paper as will completely fill up the bore of the barrel, 



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