PUNT-GUNS. 387 



say i J inches to its outside load of twenty ounces. 

 This last is a useful size for all round shooting, and 

 is not too heavy for a good-sized single, nor too 

 small for a light double punt, should fowl be in 

 plenty. You would not, moreover, grudge sending 

 twenty ounces at half a dozen ducks and mallards, 

 when with a larger gun, unless fowl were very scarce, 

 you would hesitate to do so. When few fowl are 

 to be met with, a small gun should be used, as a 

 fowler may then fire four or five shots a day, picking 

 up two or three couple after every discharge. If in 

 plenty, a large one is required. When numbers of 

 birds are about, and the shooter is sole occupant of 

 bay or creek, he should not fire, as some might, at 

 every cluster he gets near, but watch and wait for 

 the one or two really good chances that will occur, 

 if it be favourable weather, sometime during the 

 day. Then the heavier the charge, in reason, the 

 better will his patience be rewarded. One grand 

 combination of fowl, time, tide and wind, and a 

 shot producing sixty to eighty birds is worth all the 

 popping about after small bunches for the season, 

 and a pleasure to look back upon for many a year. 



If a heavy barrel is ordered in London, Dublin, 

 or elsewhere, the design finds its way to one man 

 only, or at most two, who live in or near Bir- 

 mingham, and who alone possess the large and 

 expensive tools for turning them out. If the order 

 is through a well-known London firm, they will 

 charge a third more than if the weapon were sold 

 at Birmingham. You are, however, safer in the 

 weapon if procured through a first-rate London 

 gunsmith, to whom reputation is everything, and 



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