76 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



none but a very crack shot, and he but rarely, shoots at a 

 bird which is forty yards off when he draws the trigger, 

 and which, if going away from him, or down wind, will be 

 when killed at least ten yards farther. 



It is safe to assert, that not one bird in a hundred 

 killed is shot at when above forty yards from the trigger, 

 and that birds so shot at, not one in ten is brought to bag. 



By this, one may judge how much avail there is in 

 talking about the necessity of having guns, which shall 

 shoot evenly and strongly at sixty yards. No gun, I had 

 almost said, ever did so; and would be of little avail 

 if it did. 



It cannot be denied that very short guns, so short as 

 26, 28, and even I believe 24 inch barrels, with gauges so 

 large as 10 and 9, having the weight of the 14 gauge and 

 31 inch guns, have been found to shoot far better than had 

 previously been supposed possible, carrying heavy charges, 

 and not appearing so much deficient in range or penetra- 

 tion as to be manifestly inferior to the larger guns. For 

 covert, their powerful load, and the comparatively large 

 space which their shot covers, rendered them exceedingly 

 fatal, and, for a time, they were all the rage with London 

 makers, and some were even exported hither ; but on the 

 moors, and even in wild partridge shooting, in England, 

 they did not tell, and for this country or British Colonial 

 shooting, they never had any wide or general market. If 

 one were rich enough to have a gun for every season of 

 the year, one of these short wide-barrel London guns, by 

 a first-class maker, of about 6 Ibs. weight, would be a very 

 agreeable change for July cock-shooting, reserving the 



