WADDING. 103 



If your gunmaker should send you a punch which 

 is too large, and you have consequently trouble in 

 forcing down the wadding, just bite it a little edge- 

 ways, and you will contract it so as to load in a 

 quarter of the time, without the risk of either leaving 

 a vacuum, or breaking your ramrod. This, of course, 

 I only name as an alternative, till you can change 

 your punch. If, on the other hand, the punch is 

 but a mere trifle too small, it may be enlarged by 

 being rubbed on a whetstone ; to do which, place 4 it 

 flat, as you would on the pasteboard ; and, unless 

 you grind it too much, there will still remain a suf- 

 ficient edge, owing to the gritty substance in its 

 composition. 



If you have separate wadding in two pockets, and 

 have that which covers the shot pierced with a small 

 hole (or, what is better, cut with Mr. Joseph Mantori's 

 dented punch), you will load as quick again. I detest 

 all frivolous trouble, but you will here find great ad- 

 vantage in the saving of time. The pasteboard which 

 covers the powder should (as before observed) be 

 kept air-tight from the shot. This, indeed, seldom 

 troubles you, as the air that passes, more or less, 

 through all locks, will admit the first wadding to go 

 down pretty freely ; but, after this and the shot are 

 in the barrel, the resistance, if the wadding fits tight, 

 as it ought to do, is then so great as to be unpleasant 

 to the hand, and inimical to expedition. 



Both pockets must be in reach of the same hand, 



