82 DETONATING SYSTEM. 



is, where you would fire six inches before a bird with 

 a flint, fire only THREE INCHES with a DETONATER; 

 AND so ON. If a sportsman has been all his life an 

 indifferent shot, which he may be, either through 

 never having acquired the knack of firing sufficiently 

 forward ; flinching as he pulls the trigger ; dropping 

 his hand before the gun is fairly discharged ; or many 

 other such circumstances : I most strongly advise 

 him to lose not a moment in getting a detonater, 

 because I have known many instances, where a man 

 had been a very bad shot all his life, through defects 

 which the use of a detonater might so effectually 

 remedy, that by taking up one he might, almost im- 

 mediately, become a tolerable, if not a very good 

 shot. For one, however, who has always shot well 

 with a flint, it becomes somewhat difficult to give 

 advice. On first taking up the detonater, he will, by 

 habit, fire well forward at all his game, and, very 

 probably, have the mortification to miss such shots, 

 as he was before in the habit of killing. (Of this I 

 was an eye-witness when out with one of the most 

 certain shots in England). He will soon, however 

 (to use a sailor's expression), " know the trim" of his 

 gun ; and, taking all things into consideration, most 

 probably shoot still more accurately with a detonater 

 than he had been used to do with a flint, by reason 

 of its very great readiness in obeying the pull of the 

 trigger, before the eye or hand has time to vary ; its 

 equal rapidity in foul or damp weather ; and having 

 scarcely any flash from the lock of the first barrel to 



