THE GUN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 75 



measure of No. 1, where the interstices are as numerous 

 as the pellets. So that two ounces, or rather the full of 

 what is called a two ounce measure, in a shooting-pouch, 

 of No. 1, shall not really weigh more than one and a half 

 ounce of No. 10, by the same measure. 



This then constitutes, according to my opinion, the 

 gun above described, the most available for all purposes, 

 and the most useful general shooting gun for all sports- 

 men who can afford but one gun for all work, that can be 

 made. 



It is sufficiently short and handy to be easily recover- 

 able, and to shoot with murderous effect in the closest 

 and most tangled brake. It is sufficiently close-carrying 

 and hard-hitting to do its work, as well as any gun is ever 

 needed to do its work, on the wildest game in the open. 

 It will stop a wild duck going down wind with No. 2 

 shot at 45 to 50 yards, or with an Eley's cartridge at 70 ; 

 and with ten slugs in a wire cartridge, a stag at the same 

 distance will have but a poor chance before it, for it will 

 throw the ten slugs into a twenty-four inch diameter. 



I have never myself shot in any covert with a shorter 

 gun, nor did I ever feel that I was giving any odds to 

 those who did. I have never shot in the open with a 

 longer or heavier gun, and I have always felt, that in 

 shooting a hard long day through, I was taking large odds 

 from those who did. 



It must be remembered, which, for the most part it is 

 not, that the great majority of birds killed are recovered 

 dead, within twenty yards of the muzzle ; that not one in 

 fifty, in a day's shooting, is gathered over forty, and that 



