14 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



engineering firm of Sir Joseph Whitworth, as also the 

 Siemens steel I have used with much satisfaction on 

 several occasions. Mr. W. W. Greener of Birmingham 

 has a special form of steel which he makes use of for 

 wild-fowl gun-barrels, and I have had pleasing results 

 from certain of this maker's guns so fitted. 



Krupps' " Spezial " steel was tried by the editor of 

 The Field newspaper and found to be well-nigh inde- 

 structible. Still it strikes one that it is a pity if we 

 should have to go abroad for more suitable steel for 

 our gun-barrels. Surely steel possessed of properties 

 equally as good as that made abroad can be produced in 

 Britain. However patriotic and conservative of their 

 country's best interests British sportsmen may be, it is 

 but natural that they should follow the trend of every im- 

 provement in their accoutrement. Shooters now-a-days 

 are more than ever particular to obtain that which best 

 conduces to their comfort and success in sport ; thus, if 

 more reliable cartridge-cases or caps are to be obtained in 

 America, France, or Belgium, or gun-barrels from Ger- 

 many, they will be used in preference to articles that are less 

 suitable, even should the latter be made in this country. 



In the flint-lock period gun-barrels were much 

 lengthier than now. Towards the close of that era we 

 find guns used for game-shooting having barrels fully 

 six inches longer than the general run of game guns of 

 the present day. Colonel Hawker had a I4~bore with 

 3O-inch barrels, or 44 times the diameter of the bore 

 in length ; but he preferred even longer barrels, three 

 feet in length for choice. The quicker ignition and more 

 rapid combustion of the powder brought about by the 

 use of the percussion cap and closed breech gave rise to a 

 shortening of the barrel, until in recent years 30 inches is 



