PUNT-GUNS. 397 



That they are safer cannot, I think, be denied by 

 anybody. There is no danger of a muzzle-loader 

 breaking down, action jamming (for it has none), 

 or getting out of order (for it can't), in-out-of-the- 

 way places, perhaps a day's drive to the nearest 

 gunsmith. Such an accident, when fowl abound, is 

 irritating, to say the least. Punting powder and 

 shot can be got almost anywhere, breech-loading 

 cartridge cases with the greatest difficulty. These 

 must be obtained from the trader who sold or built 

 the gun, whose supply is probably exhausted, the 

 demand being so small, and they will have to be 

 specially made to suit the weapon in question, as 

 there are no standard shapes or sizes, each gun- 

 maker, at present, having a plan and a pattern of 

 his own. A muzzle-loader can be loaded in say 

 four minutes, and that is quick enough for all fowl- 

 ing. I do not wish to slight what advantages 

 breech-loaders do actually possess. They can be 

 loaded far easier in rough water than can their 

 rivals, if a shot should then present itself, a 

 most rare occurrence. But to most fowlers, at 

 least those who know their work, the few advan- 

 tages breech-loaders can show do not turn the 

 scale in their favour, their great weight and cost 

 being much against them. Cost may not matter to 

 a few, but weight is a consideration to everybody, 

 and a great one. A gun that shoots a pound and 

 weighs a hundred, or even a hundred and twenty, 

 as most breech-loaders do, is the same as if you 

 took a forty pound weight with you to no possible 

 good, merely to put the punt's floor lower in 

 the water for the shallows a bad thing surely. 



