8 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



killed in a slovenly manner, and its effective range will 

 be considerably curtailed. Still, sportsmen of this day 

 need have few apprehensions on this score, for with 

 modern sporting explosives and suitably-loaded car- 

 tridges most guns will drive the shot with sufficient 

 velocity to insure killing game at all reasonable distances. 



Recoil. Finally, there is the consideration of recoil, 

 which, if excessive, tends more than anything to rapidly 

 demoralise and put a man off his shooting. Recoil is 

 ever present in greater or lesser degree ; it varies in 

 accordance with the weight of the charges fired and the 

 amount of skill exhibited by the gun-maker in the 

 boring and chambering of the barrels, as well, also, in 

 the disposition of their weight of metal. Fortunately 

 the checking or governing of recoil is a matter largely 

 dependent upon the shooter himself. The load is the 

 dominant factor, and in great degree upon his skilful 

 regulation of this will his comfort in shooting depend. 



In the early days of the hammerless gun much harm 

 was wrought by the issue of several guns of this type 

 that were faultily devised or imperfectly constructed. 

 Thereby the universal adoption of this class of arm was 

 much retarded, the sportsman's mind being considerably 

 perturbed by the number of accidental discharges which 

 occurred. On some early examples of the hammerless 

 gun the safety-bolt was more or less inoperative, 

 sometimes even to the extent of permitting the firing of 

 the gun with the bolt on. A commoner source of 

 danger with a defective bolt was that where it was 

 permissible to shake or jar it out of position. One gun 

 that I heard of had acquired the disconcerting, albeit 

 less risky trick of automatically putting on the safety- 

 bolt whenever the first barrel was fired. This movement 



