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CHAPTEE XI. 



GUNS AND SHOOTING. 



pEW subjects have commanded a more extensive bibliography than the sportsman's gun. 

 Standard works innumerable have been written about it and this mass of literature has 

 been further supplemented by the treatises and illustrated catalogues of practically every 

 gunmaker in the trade, each with the merits of his own specialities to proclaim. Perplexed, 

 indeed, is the would-be buyer with the multitudinous articles so appetizingly and stren- 

 uously advocated, for possibly as soon as his choice of a particular weapon has been made 

 it is undone by some other more attractive advertisement that meets his eye. A short cut, 

 and perhaps the wisest in the long run, might be to put himself at the outset in the hands 

 of a first class gunmaker, tell him his requirements and the amount of money he is pre- 

 pared to expend, and act upon the advice which would honestly be given him. For in the 

 matter of the choice of a gun the sportsman in China must, perforce, find himself somewhat 

 at a discount, for, in the first place, selection is necessarily limited to the small stocks held : 

 in the second, the guns offered for sale are for the most part what are generally known as export 

 guns, which in itself is no enviable notoriety; in the third place the low prices asked, rarely 

 over Tls. 125 or the equivalent at the present depreciated price of silver of rather under £15, 

 are a pretty sure argument that high quality is not even suggested : and in the fourth place 

 it would be nothing else than a piece of the rarest good luck if the weapon he be intent on 

 purchasing should be after all found to fit him. Now the fit of a gun is a truly personal matter 

 for although the majority of sportsmen shoot fairly well with the gun which suits eighty men 

 out of every hundred, unless the gun is liked by them they will never feel that they shoot 

 so well with it as they ought to. As no two persons are alike, every person to be exactly 

 suited with a gun will require something different from that which will suit another, but in 

 practice that difference, though all important, may be often so slight as not to be particularly 

 noticeable. Reasonably, therefore, it would be wisest to get measured by a competent 

 maker, or failing that to send him the exact measurement of a gun that you have tried 

 and fancy suits you, with fullest particulars as to weight, cast-on or cast-off, pull of triggers, 

 bend of stock, weight and any little alterations deemed necessary, with instructions to 

 do the best he can for you. The chances are that you will be well served. 



To the question which one is constantly asked "What is the best all round gun for 

 sport in China ? " the general and reasonable answer would probably be " a good i2-bore 

 central fire, top lever snap action, improved cylinder barrels, hammerless breech loader, 

 fairly straight in the stock." No other gun would seem to satisfy all the various conditions 

 and requirements incident to general shooting in this part of the world. Naturally enough 



