PUNT-GUNS. 385 



or even as when shore-shooting ; if they did I would 

 spare my ink and paper. 



Punt-guns. A fowler should choose his big gun 

 to suit the shooting he expects to get, afterwards 

 let him buy or build a punt. If in a neighbourhood 

 where fowl are scarce and small shots the rule, then 

 a light weapon will answer (charge half-pound to 

 three-quarters.) There is no object in wasting a 

 large charge on very few fowl. If birds are more 

 numerous without being abundant, though now and 

 again good-sized companies are encountered, then a 

 gun shooting a pound to a pound and a quarter 

 should meet his wants. If, again, he fowls in wild 

 out-of-the-way spots, such as there are many of 

 in the British Isles and other countries, where 

 the birds are plentiful, then a gun firing a charge 

 of from one and a half to two pounds will pay 

 best. 



My largest gun (a muzzle-loader), built to my 

 order and drawings, and made, I may say, under 

 my superintendence, was turned out by Messrs. 

 Bently and Playfair, of Birmingham, in 1878. The 

 total weight is 1 8olbs. ; length of barrel, gft. 6in. ; 

 total length, loft. 6in. ; bore, 2 in. ; charge, 8ozs. 

 of powder and 2-Jlbs. of shot. (Double-cap ignition 

 or tube if caps run short.) 



I am now building an experimental gun I have 

 designed, to do away with the waste of the shot 

 that must always occur when firing at a number of 

 fowl sitting or swimming ; this being caused by 

 the charge leaving the gun muzzle in a circle, as 

 pointed out elsewhere. What should kill birds so 

 placed to perfection would be a double-barrelled 



c c 



