54 DIRECTIONS FOR CLEANING GUNS. 



answers the purpose only of alarming women and poul- 

 try, putting your cattle into a gallop, and your kennel 

 full cry ; and, in short, making a general disturbance 

 among your domestic animals ! very excusable in a 

 boy, who would desire no better fun ! 



If a gun, after your having probed the touchhole, should ever 

 flash in the pan, you had better draw the shot ; and, in firing off 

 the powder, hold the gun sideways (that is, with the touchhole 

 uppermost). I have seen shooters plagued for half an hour with 

 their guns, which have gone off immediately on being held in this 

 manner. 



The proper, safest, and most certain way of ascertaining that 

 your gun be perfectly clean, is to hold it to the light, and look 

 through it (as before recommended) ; and to prove that neither oil 

 nor damp be left behind, put your charge of powder into the barrel, 

 and, before you add the wadding, see that the few grains, which you 

 can shake into the pan, are quite dry; and if so, prime, and finish 

 loading ; but observe, that in trying this with Mr. Joseph Manton's 

 original patent hammers (which are the best he ever invented), you- 

 must, for the moment, leave the pans open, or no powder will pass. 



If a 'stupid fellow wedges dry tow into your gun, 

 with the cleaning-rod, pour boiling water on it, and 

 the rod may then be turned round and drawn out. 

 I remember this occurred with a large punt-gun, at 

 which I caught four men 'bawling away most unmer- 

 cifully, but to no effect. I luckily came by and saved 

 the destruction of the cleaning-rod, if not the injury of 

 the barrel, by suggesting this simple contrivance. 



These little remedies, I am aware, must be insipid 

 to the reader; but, when wanted, often prove worth 

 double the price of a book ; so that I have never failed 

 to pencil down, and afterwards insert here, all that I 

 thought had the least chance of being original to the 

 average of sportsmen. 



