GUN-TESTING 39 



On being required to build a gun, the gun-maker will 

 frequently be asked to regulate the boring to produce a 

 certain pattern with some particular size of shot and 

 kind of powder. Having carried out his instructions he 

 will have done all that has been required of him on this 

 head. Thereafter, on changing this load, some variation 

 in size of shot or make of powder being effected, the 

 gunner, often as not, is in complete ignorance as to the 

 performance of his gun under the altered conditions. 

 Naturally, in such case, trial at the target is at once the 

 readiest means for settling all doubts as to the suitability 

 of specific loads for each and every gun. 



Sportsmen living at a distance from their gun-maker, 

 and who thus cannot conveniently have access to a 

 shooting-range, will do well to fix up a target of their 

 own. This need not be either an elaborate or a costly 

 affair. Two 4-feet squares of stout sheet-iron fixed 

 up against a wall or fence, some 3 or 4 yards 

 apart, and with their lower edges about 3 feet from 

 the ground, will prove generally sufficient as targets for 

 the sportsman's purpose. The range should be accurately 

 measured by a surveyor's tape or chain, and firing-points 

 staked off at intervals of 5 yards, starting from 15 

 or 20 yards and up to, say, 60 yards. The last- 

 named distance is as far as one need go in conducting 

 any practical trials of game guns. A pot of whitewash 

 with brush, and a scribe to mark off 3O-inch circles on 

 the whitewashed plates, render the equipment complete 

 so far as pattern-testing is concerned. The reason I 

 recommend two targets, placed side by side, is, of course, 

 to lessen both the time consumed and amount of 

 walking to be done ; for with targets so arranged the 

 experimenter may fire both barrels of his double gun 



