THE GTJN, AND HOW TO CHOOSE IT. 73 



The old rule of proportion was 46 or 48 diameters of 

 the bore to the length of the barrel ; and on this Col. 

 Hawker insists, consistent to the last, in his latest edition; 

 advising that a gun of fourteen gauge should never be less 

 than thirty-four or thirty-six inches in length, and that 

 thirty-two inches is the proportion for a twenty-two guage. 

 I do not doubt that, for the mere carrying of shot, the ex- 

 treme length will keep the charge together longer, and, 

 consequently, that a three-foot barrel will throw its shot 

 more regularly and evenly at sixty yards, than one of two 

 foot eight ; and that a twenty- two gauge gun of thirty- two 

 inches length, will do so in a yet greater degree. 



Therefore, if carrying shot to a great distance, say 60 

 yards, evenly, without reference to the quantity thrown, 

 or any other consideration, be the test, a gun of twenty -two 

 gauge and thirty-two inches would be the best in the 

 world ; but a gun, of twenty-two guage and thirty-two 

 inches, would not be of above 5 Ibs. weight, and should 

 not, at the utmost, be loaded with above 1 drachms of 

 powder and f ounce of shot which shot ought never to 

 be above No. 6 or 7. In other words, it would be a 

 mere child's plaything and pop-gun. On the other hand, 

 the gun of fourteen gauge, at the same proportion of 

 gauge to length, should be, not as he recommends, three 

 feet, but three feet 7? inches, and would probably weigh 

 about twelve pounds. The colonel's advice, therefore, 

 to use a thirty-four or thirty-six inch barrel with a 

 gauge of fourteen, is, in itself, a compromise, founded on 

 the sacrifice of force to ease of handing; since it would 

 have been clearly preposterous to tell men to go out cock- 

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