SHOT GUNS. 551 



short distances, a strong double gun is a formidable arm when 

 loaded with one ball and one buck shot cartridge. The ball may 

 be relied upon for ten rods, and at a still longer range with slight 

 elevation, and for snap shots at running game, will do fatal work 

 about as often as a rifle. The round ball is considered as more 

 immediately destructive than any other. The blow is very power- 

 ful, and the " shock " to the animal consequently great, while the 

 flesh and skin will hardly close over the wound to retard bleeding. 

 It is claimed that large game will succumb more rapidly to the 

 ragged crush of such a large ball, and save many a mile of trailing 

 or the loss of game. There are many long arduous tramps taken 

 after large game, when every ounce is to be well considered in 

 arranging packs, and when but one gun can be carried, the use of 

 ball in double guns may enable a hunter to decide upon taking a 

 gun that will bring ducks, spruce grouse, etc., to the larder. Round 

 ball cartridges may be prepared in the same way as shot cartridges, 

 with a wad over the powder, but none on the ball, simply creasing 

 the shell deeply over it, to keep it firm. 



Shot Guns. — While the muzzle-loading rifle may be said to still 

 hold its own with the breech-loader, as proved by the long range 

 tests at Creedmoor and elsewhere, as well as in the field, the muz- 

 zle-loading shot gun has had to defer to the breech-loader. The 

 advantages are so much with the latter, especially in wing shoot- 

 ing, that we shall confine our few remarks to it exclusively. There 

 are so many makers of excellent guns both English and American, 

 (which are chiefly in use in this country,) that in attempting a 

 selection of the best, comparisons as to their merits become invid- 

 ious and fruitless of satisfactory conclusions. 



By the way, we may remark, in passing, that those who .are 

 endeavoring to fix a date from facts, for the period of perfection in 

 the use of firearms for sporting purposes, will be greatly assisted 

 by a small Italian work, entitled " Eccellmza della Caocia de 

 Cesar e Solaiio Romana," printed at Rome, in 1669. The author 

 states, that at the time he wrote, the art of shooting on the wing 

 had been known in Rome about eighty years, so that it may be 

 taken for granted that in Italy sportsmen began to shoot on the 

 wing about 1589. It is therefore natural to suppose that about the 

 same period that practice became tolerably general on the conti- 



