I40 GUNS 



extractor, which is one of the trifles of the shooting 

 outfit in regard to price, and which must not be left 

 at home, is very useful when the cartridges stick, as 

 the best of them will at times. I have seen people 

 actually use their teeth for tugging out obstinate 

 cartridges when they have neither extractor nor 

 any other implement that will serve at a pinch, 

 but I do not recommend the practice ; the car- 

 tridge may loosen the tooth instead of the tooth 

 the cartridge. When I first began shooting with a 

 breech-loader I filled my own cartridges. Many 

 an hour of my life in those days I spent pouring 

 powder and shot and ramming greasy wads into 

 green, blue, aye and even brown cartridge-cases 

 which had already been used more than once. 

 As a consequence those cartridges would stick 

 rather often : the vexation when one of them 

 stuck very fast, and I had forgotten to bring out 

 my extractor ! 



Nowadays, I fancy, not many gunners fill their 

 own cartridges, unless they are rather " faddy " 

 about the exact sorts and proportions of powder 

 and shot they shoot with. In the days I speak of, 

 by the way, the powder used was chiefly the old 

 black sort. It made our guns very dirty, and it 

 caused a great deal of smoke — on some days 

 especially ; but I believe it was as killing as 

 most powders. I have no particular preference 

 or fancy as to what '^ smokeless powders " I use. 

 Sometimes I shoot with amberite, sometimes with 

 Schultz. It is not so much the particular powder 



