PUNT-GUNS. 395 



that down to the country and practise at pigeons 

 or brown paper.* In light guns, say up to a 

 charge of a pound, a breech-loader may answer 

 well enough to please. Where fowl are few it is, 

 perhaps, a convenience to some to slam it off at 

 every odd couple of birds or so they see, but that 

 is not duck-shooting as it should be. Of course 

 there is no doubt breech-loaders can be loaded 

 the quickest. So they can, and if, as I before said, 

 shots were procured every few minutes, or even 

 every quarter-hour, they would be invaluable. As 

 it is, four shots a day, rarely more, is as much as 

 may be expected ; and a fowler is precious glad to 

 rest whilst his man, if in a double, and himself, if in 

 a single, take a little time to tidy up, punt birds, &c., 

 at leisure. The chances are another shot will not 

 occur for at least an hour or more. The gun can 

 then be loaded at leisure ; and, after all, that is a 

 matter of but four or five minutes at most. The 

 charge can be changed in a breech-loader to suit 

 the birds likely to be met. So it can, but a fowler 

 usually knows what he has a prospect of falling 

 in with ; he either loads according, or draws the 

 charge (a matter of a few moments), or rams the 

 shot down on seeing his style of game. A breech- 

 loader can be unloaded at night on reaching home, 

 if it was not fired since last charging. So it can, 

 but the charge in a punt-gun is as safe, if not safer, 

 than in the powder canister, or ought to be, when 

 the ignition (a simple matter) is removed. 



* Nor can he at a target ; for a punt-gun cannot be fairly tried, 

 as to balance, weight, shooting, &c., save when rigged in a punt as 

 used in actual fowling. 



