74 MANUAL FOTC YOUNG- SPORTSMEN". 



shooting with guns six feet long, weighing twelve or fou 

 teen pounds. 



But a much farther compromise is necessary, and it 

 now pretty generally conceded that the best and me 

 useful gun, applicable to all kinds of shooting, and servk 

 able in all, is one of fourteen gauge thirty-one inch ba 

 rel, and 7 to eight Ibs. weight. Such a gun will car 

 a charge of 1|- ounce of shot to about 3^ drachms < 

 powder, which is in the ratio of measure for measure, 

 seven to one by weight, and do its work well, regular! 

 evenly and effectively at forty yards dispersing its sh( 

 at that distance, over a circle of thirty inches diamet< 

 so evenly that, supposing No. 8 shot to be used, no woo 

 cock, quail, or single snipe shall be within that circle u 

 pierced by one or more pellets or, if larger shot be use 

 no ruffed grouse, prairie-fowl, or wild duck. 



I do not intend, by any means, to indicate forty yar 

 as the extreme distance at which such a gun will do 3 

 work fatally, but only as the distance at which it oug 

 invariably to do it, killing every bird clean, if it be he 

 so straight as to bring the bird aimed at within the circ' 

 Beyond this it will often, I may say constantly, kill SOT 

 shots at fifty, some fewer at sixty, and now and then 01 

 at seventy yards ; moreover, such a gun will carry, wh 

 required, an ounce and three-quarters or two ounces 

 No. 1 or 2 shot, with 3 drachms of powder, with gre 

 force and effect ; it being remembered, that when i 

 estimate by filling a measure of one capacity with pelle 

 of different sizes, the measure of No. 10 shot being almc 

 solid, will weigh at least one-third more than the san 



