28 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



Here again, as the powder charges are expressed in 

 drachms, it will be understood that black powder is 

 referred to. As some wild-fowlers will, doubtless, prefer 

 to use a nitro-compound in their shoulder-gun, it may be 

 remarked that proportionate charges of the bulk powders, 

 Schultze, E.G., S.S., or Amberite, may be used in these 

 guns instead of black powder. 



The term brass-case gun is applied to those shot-guns 

 bored more especially for use with brass cartridge-cases. 

 The brass case most frequently used in this country is 

 that known as the " Perfect, " and which is made by 

 Messrs. Kynoch Ltd., Birmingham. Messrs. Eley Bros., 

 London, formerly made a solid-drawn brass case, and, I 

 believe, still continue to do so, but these, probably owing 

 to the cost of production being high, and necessarily 

 higher price, have not been so generally adopted. The 

 cost of the " Perfect " metallic case is much the same 

 as that of the better paper cases. The tube of this 

 case is formed of brass considerably thinner than the 

 paper of ordinary cases ; consequently, as the external 

 diameter of a case of thin brass is the same as that of a 

 paper case of the same denomination, it will be per- 

 ceived that the internal diameter of its tube, i. e. the bore, 

 is larger than that of the paper case. Thus larger wads 

 are required for the thin brass cases than for paper cases 

 bearing the same number. For this reason, in guns 

 bored especially for brass cases, the bore of the barrel at 

 the widest part will gauge, approximately, two sizes 

 larger; that is to say, a No. 12 brass-case gun is practically 

 a lo-gauge, a No. 10 may be virtually an 8-bore, and so 

 on. Thus owing to their greater capacity we see 

 heavier loads in the thin brass cases generally than in 

 the paper cases of the same length. In this connection 



