6 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



particularly heavy guns, with that promptitude and 

 ease necessary to insure good shooting, as an ill-propor- 

 tioned, unmanageable stock. Some 8- and 4-bores are 

 positively unwieldy by reason of the amount of timber 

 there is about them and the general awkwardness of 

 their stocks. Greater strength is of course requisite in 

 the stocks of guns used with heavy loads ; still, the 

 young tree occasionally doing duty as a stock is 

 unnecessary if suitable well-seasoned wood is employed. 

 Balance. This is far more essential to the ready 

 handling of the gun, and to insure good shooting, than 

 many people may be aware of. A well-balanced gun 

 tries the shooter far less and assists much more to 

 sustain his powers of marksmanship, his regularity of 

 performance, through a long and tiring day, than an 

 imperfectly-balanced gun. 



Fit. It has become more and more the fashion in 

 recent years to measure sportsmen, accurately and 

 scientifically, for their guns. This is accomplished by 

 means of an instrument called a " try " gun having an 

 adjustable stock and butt, which more or less accurately 

 determines as to individual requirements in respect of 

 length, bend, cast-off, and so forth of the gun-stock. 



Shooting. Unless the barrel-borer performs his part 

 satisfactorily, the fitter, stocker, finisher, engraver, and 

 the host of other workmen employed in the manufacture 

 of a shot-gun and its ammunition will have laboured 

 in vain. Barrel-boring, so far as shot-guns are concerned, 

 is an inexact art, inasmuch as no absolute rule can be 

 laid down as to the dimensions of bore required to 

 secure certain results. With the introduction of choke- 

 boring, whereby any requisite degree of closeness in 

 shooting may be obtained, and also by the light thrown 



