DIRECTIONS FOR TRYING BARRELS. 27 



but never with a gun, after being simply told how 

 to try it. 



Having taken out the breeching, and ascertained 

 that the barrel is free from flaws, or unsound places, 

 let him fire about a dozen or twenty shots at a quire 

 of the thickest brown paper, by which he will know, 

 to a certainty, both the strength and closeness with 

 which the shot is driven ; and he should remember, 

 that the strongest and most regular shooting gun is 

 the best, provided it does not throw the shot so thin 

 as for a bird to escape between them. 



The same quire of paper might do for all, if one 

 fresh sheet is put in front of, and another behind it, 

 every time the gun is fired. 



Before concluding on the examination of barrels, 

 it may be proper to observe, that a barrel may be 

 pretty good and perfectly safe, and yet not able to 

 bear the scientific inspection of a first-rate maker or 

 judge. That is, to hold the barrel up to the window, 

 and gradually raise it till the shade, from above the 

 window, runs along its surface, by which inspection 

 you will easily discover the most trifling want of 

 finish. For instance, examine a barrel of Mr. Lan- 

 caster, in this manner, and the shade will run along 

 it like the even surface on a flow of smooth water. 

 But take a barrel of an inferior finisher, and you will 

 perceive the iron all in bumps, as if that flow of water 

 was agitated by wind. To the many, however, who 

 fancy themselves good judges of a gun, the one might 

 appear as perfect as the other ; and so indeed it would, 



