GAME GUNS 17 



tinct advantage that thereby perfect interchangeability 

 of parts may be secured. The breakage of some com- 

 paratively trivial part of his gun may mean total loss of 

 sport, or a cessation of operations over a more or less 

 extended period, especially to the man far apart from 

 gunshops in the wilds of Scotland or Ireland, or abroad. 

 With a machine-made gun the case would be different, 

 for then, with duplicate parts in the gun-case, sport need 

 suffer little interruption, whilst even in the worst event a 

 wire to the maker would secure a new hammer, tumbler, 

 striker-pin, fore-end bolt, or what not by next post. Mr. 

 Edgar Harrison (Messrs. Cogswell and Harrison) has for 

 some time given much attention to the manufacture of 

 guns by machinery. Mr. Harrison some time ago 

 informed me that he had thoroughly investigated the 

 systems in practice on the continent of Europe and 

 in the United States, and that his firm was expending 

 very large sums of money in the purchase of machinery. 

 Doubtless by this time, or very shortly, this firm will be 

 in a position to supply guns of sound construction that 

 will be interchangeable in every part. 



To the shooter about to buy a gun I would say: Go to 

 a gun-maker of experience, a man who has a reputation 

 to make or to sustain, state precisely the kind of work for 

 which the gun is wanted, and the price you are prepared 

 to pay, and, nine times out of ten, you will not have 

 cause to regret having taken such course. You will 

 then at once get the article to suit your personal 

 requirements. In the case of purchasing a second-hand 

 gun the odds are reversed, as thus, probably, it is ten to 

 one against finding the gun which exactly fits or shoots 

 to your liking. Then, of course, alterations have to be 

 effected and costs incurred, until in the end possibly as 



