Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



good for duck-guns. Length, weight, and gauge of guns considered ; the 

 old system ; the new system ; Colonel Hawker's system ; the best general 

 gun ; its size and execution ; what it will do ; why I prefer it ; short guns ; 

 where they fail ; double-barrelled duck-guns ; their size and service ; heavy 

 single duck-guns ; what they will do ; what they will cost ; how to choose 

 a gun ; the trials ; close shooting guns ; scattering guns ; cartridges ; charg- 

 ing, and its effects ; trial of duck-guns ; what is a crack shot . . 34-83 



THE GUN, AND HOW TO USE IT. 



The art once obtained, always available ; once a master, always a master ; with 

 one system, with all systems ; improves with improvement ; three heads in 

 the use of the gun : safety, effect, service ; what is meant by safety ; 

 when a loaded gun may be called safe ; always liable to casual discharge ; 

 safety stops ; why not useful ; how to carry a loaded gun safely ; how to carry 

 the locks safely ; on the nipples ; at half-cock ; at full cock ; how to load safely ; 

 powder-flask and shot-pouch ; how to ram home ; how to save a maimed 

 hand; how to cap your piece; wadding; gunpowder; ducking powder; 

 copper caps ; sizes of shot ; a gun, how safe in a carriage ; how safe in a house ; 

 idiotic accidents with loaded arms. The criminality of such accidents; the 

 proper penalty for such ; how not to draw one's ramrod ; how not to test its 

 being loaded ; how to blow one's brains out. How to clean a gun ; the effects 

 of foulness on a gun ; when most inj urious. When to clean a gun ; who should 

 clean it ; who not ; to wash the barrels ; to cleanse the barrels ; to air the 

 barrels ; to dry rub the barrels ; to clean externally ; when not to clean the 

 locks ; why ; to polish the stock ; to put by the gun for the season. Per- 

 cussion locks. When necessary to remove them. To take them off. Bar 

 and back-action. How to dissect the lock. How to clean it ; how to recon- 

 struct it ; how to preserve barrels when laid by. How to restore. Loon- 

 skin oil. The rifle. The old-school rifle. Its gauge and length. Cause of 

 its adoption and success. Infancy of the art. Its natural defects. Gradual 

 improvements. The short yager rifle. The English double-barrelled sport- 

 ing rifle. American rest and target-shooting. The two-grooved rifle. The 

 Minie rifle. The Enfield rifle. Breech-loading arms. Perry's patent. Re- 

 volvers and breech-loaders useless as shot-guns. Military revolvers ; sport- 

 ing do. ; Colt's patent ; pistols ; rifles ; Porter's do. ;_ military breech-load- 

 ers ; sporting do., rifles ; Perry's arm ; described ; its qualities ; its princi- 

 ple; Sharpe's arm; where and why defective; my own choice; single 

 rifles ; English double rifles ; how to choose a rifle. How far men can be 

 taught to shoot by precept 84-127 



HOW TO LEARN TO SHOOT. 



The great difficulty. The Oakleigh shooting code ; how most men miss. Why 

 they do so. Keep the eye low. When a stock fits. The main point. My 

 opinion of this. The art to be acquired. Common error in this country. 

 Shooting too well sitting. What must be unlearned. Not so in Europe. 

 Effect of this cause here. What makes the rifleman miss the flying shot. 

 Mastery of the gun. Position for practice. To raise and cock ; to lower 

 and return to half cock. To shoot quick. Both eyes open. Practice with 

 caps only with powder. Candle practice. Practice at a mark without 



