DUCK GUN WADDING. 28J) 



OAKUM AND CORK VERSUS PASTEBOARD. 



IT is somewhat extraordinary that I and other 

 sportsmen, as well as the gunmakers, should never 

 have discovered that a punched wadding on the 

 powder is not the best means of loading a gun ! We 

 were all content, because it was ten times better than 

 paper, and therefore it is, and has long been, the uni- 

 versal method of loading. But I was induced to try 

 an experiment at quires of paper, having, as I always 

 do, a clerk, the same as at a cricket match, to take 

 down the advantages of strength and closeness, and 

 then to sum up the evidence and pronounce, like a 

 judge, the grand aggregate of the gun's performance ; 

 which, on such occasions, is seldom so undecided as 

 to be merely a matter of opinion. I first tried a 

 pasteboard wadding of Mr. Joseph Manton's, and no 

 one, I presume, will dispute, that both the punch 

 and the wadding, as well as every thing else from Mr. 

 Joseph Manton, must be of the best quality, the one 

 as to fitting well, and the other as to being of good 

 pasteboard. I then tried this duck-gun system of 

 loading : viz. A piece of coarse tarred oakum (pre- 

 cisely what ships' ropes are made of), first wound 

 round the finger, so as to be quite hard, and then 

 rolled up in as large a ball as will fit tight into the 

 muzzle, and go with moderate force down the caliber 

 of the gun. (The balls thus rolled up may be ready 

 made and carried in the pocket ; and, if of the proper 



