258 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



mistaken notion that " any sort of cartridge will kill a 

 rabbit," have failed utterly to satisfy themselves in the 

 course of a brisk day's sport. Under the circumstances 

 rabbits probably will have been sent away wounded that 

 should by right have been killed handsomely on the 

 spot ; and then, in the attempt to remedy matters, on 

 finding that the cartridges shoot badly, the gunner will 

 perhaps commence taking his game too near at hand, and 

 so end in blowing them to bits or stuffing them with lead. 

 Many a host who has been disappointed by the poorness 

 of skill displayed by one or other of his guests at a rabbit- 

 shoot might, if he cared, trace the" disappointment to 

 faulty cartridges. Rabbits certainly require as good and 

 as straight powder as any other game, and gunners should 

 remember that it is not fair to themselves nor, when 

 guests, to their hosts, to employ inferior cartridges even 

 for rabbit-shooting, for by doing so a certain percentage 

 of rabbits fired at will be sent away to die in their holes. 

 Personally, I find No. 5 a good size of shot to use for 

 rabbit-shooting, and I much prefer it to No. 6 or smaller 

 sizes. In fact were I to change to other sizes for this 

 purpose I should make choice of that still larger, as in 

 a general way rabbits are best stopped with fairly weighty 

 pellets. Mr. R. J. Lloyd-Price, who has had as much 

 experience in this direction as most men, recommends a 

 charge of f oz. of No. 3 shot in 12 -bores for heavy rabbit- 

 shooting days. That this load answers really well in 

 practice, may be inferred from the fact that it has been 

 deliberately chosen for use on an estate where rabbits 

 are so exceptionally numerous as to enable a total bag of 

 5086 to be killed by ten guns in one day's shooting. 



