GUNS AND SHOOTING. 



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right, and from iH to ij^ oz. No. 2 shot in the left barrel. And this for any kind of game 

 larger than snipe : quail were not shot in those days, in fact were ignored. Now it is quite 

 the exception to use anything but hard or chilled shot, and that of a size rarely exceeding 

 No. 6, except when after wildfowl. And there can be but little doubt but that the bags 

 big as they were in earlier days, would have been still larger had the smaller sized shot been 

 in favour, for the shooter doubtless got much nearer to his birds in the years gone by than 

 he does in these days of high cultivation. " But after all it is open to discussion whether 

 modern guns and powder can claim any extraordinary superiority of killing power. Their 

 superiority lies in the comparative ease in which they can be loaded and fired, and in the 

 case of powders in the absence of recoil and smoke." — Encyclopaedia Brittanica. 



Standabd Sizes of English Shot. 



Cartridge bags made of brown mail canvas or ordinary sail canvas are the best. 

 They should be made to hold no more than 40 cartridges. If of larger size the extra weight 

 will soon wear holes through the bag. Moreover, larger bags are unhandy even for the 

 coolie carrying them : far better a couple of small bags. Leather bags get soft when wet 

 and rotten when dry. So-called waterproof bags resolve themselves into jelly in Summer. 

 Cartridge belts are only fit for fine weather : even then they do not equal the canvas bag, 



