STOCK. 31 



measure for them as carefully entered on a gunmaker's 

 books, as that for a suit of clothes on those of his tailor. 

 He has then only to direct, that his guns may be well 

 balanced; to do which, the maker will put lead, in pro- 

 portion to their weight ; so that, on holding each of them 

 flat on the left hand, with the end of the lock opposite 

 the little finger, he will find a sufficient equilibrium to 

 make the gun rest perfectly steady ON the hand. 



I have proved, that this degree of balance answers 

 best, as a but too much loaded is apt to hang on the 

 right hand in bringing it up, and vice versa, on the 

 left, with a gun which is topheavy. 



N.B. The lower down the but the lead is let in, 

 the steadier the gun will keep to the shoulder; as it 

 then acts like ballast to a rolling vessel. 



All stocks should have a good Jail in the handle, and 

 not be, as some are, nearly horizontal in that part. 

 This has nothing to do with the general bend or 

 mounting of the stock, but is merely to keep the hand 

 to the natural position, instead of having, as it were, 

 the handle wrenched from the fingers, while grasping 

 it. This is the only point on which we are beat 

 by those execrable gingerbread guns, which some 

 of the foreigners have the effrontery to compare with 

 ours. 



If a stock, in every respect, suits you as to coming 

 up to the eye, &c. &c., the way to have one precisely 

 like it is to leave with your gunmaker a thin piece of 

 board, made to fit with the greatest accuracy to the 

 profile of the bend, all the way from the upper part of 

 the but to the breeching. By later experience, I should 

 say even farther still. Let the profile extend at least a 



