THE GTTN, AND ttOW TO CHOOSE IT. 73 



The old rule of proportion was 46 or 48 diameters of 

 the bore to the length of the barrel ; and on this Col. 

 Hawker insists, consistent to the last, in his latest edition; 

 advising that a gun of fourteen gauge should never be less 

 than thirty-four or thirty-six inches in length, and that 

 thirty-two inches is the proportion for a twenty-two guage. 

 I do not doubt that, for the mere carrying of shot, the ex- 

 treme length will keep the charge together longer, and, 

 consequently, that a three-foot barrel will throw its shot 

 more regularly and evenly at sixty yards, than one of two 

 foot eight ; and that a twenty-two gauge gun of thirty-two 

 inches length, will do so in a yet greater degree. 



Therefore, if carrying shot to a great distance, say 60 

 yards, evenly, without reference to the quantity thrown, 

 or any other consideration, be the test, a gun of twenty-two 

 gauge and thirty-two inches would be the best in the 

 world ; but a gun, of twenty-two guage and thirty-two 

 inches, would not be of above 5 Ibs. weight, and should 

 not, at the utmost, be loaded with above 1|- drachms of 

 powder and J- ounce of shot which shot ought never to 

 be above No. 6 or 7. In other words, it would be a 

 mere child's plaything and pop-gun. On the other hand, 

 the gun of fourteen gauge, at the same proportion of 

 gauge to length, should be, not as he recommends, three 

 feet, but three feet 7* inches, and would probably weigh 

 about twelve pounds. The colonel's advice, therefore, 

 to use a thirty-four or thirty-six inch barrel with a 

 gauge of fourteen, is, in itself, a compromise, founded on 

 the sacrifice of force to ease of handing; since it would 

 have been clearly preposterous to tell men to go out cock- 

 4 



