CHAPTER III 



GUN-TESTING. TARGET RESULTS. SHOT-GUN 

 PATTERNS 



BY common consent, the 40 yards range, the 3<>inch 

 circle, and the charge of 3 dr. powder to ij oz. 

 No. 6 shot, have come to be regarded as standards for 

 the target trial of 12-bore game guns. This distance 

 may be looked upon as the effective killing range of such 

 guns, and, as evidencing in a practical way their full 

 capabilities and powers, this method of trial may be 

 looked upon as a reliable gun-maker's test. At the same 

 time, for sportsmen to do the whole of their gun-testing 

 at this range is bad in principle, if we consider that the 

 greater percentage of game killed in this country is 

 shot at about half that distance. 



Gun-makers can now give the sportsman practically 

 any pattern he may desire at 40 yards ; should he 

 therefore decide to have the barrels of his game gun 

 bored to throw a very open pattern, a display of 100 

 pellet-marks within the 3<D-inch circle at 40 yards, or a 

 decidedly close pattern, say, 210 pellets with the ij oz. 

 No. 6 shot at the same distance, his taste can be suited 

 to a nicety. The choice of pattern should be determined 

 by the sportsman's skill as a shot, and also by the work 

 to be done. For use in an open country, and particularly 



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