SHOT, POWDER, SHELLS, WADS AND LOADING. 337 



courtesy we offer him a few of our shells to try. He 

 declines them on the ground " has plenty of his own." 

 We rather insist, and not to be impolite he accepts 

 them. At the same time, he only uses enough, that he 

 may not offend us. Why? Simply because he has 

 more faith in his own shells than in any other. 



Does the reader intend loading his own shells ? Tak- 

 ing it for granted he does, let us aid him all we can, 

 that it may be properly done. First, in loading, say one 

 shell at a time, the best loader in my opinion is the Bar- 

 clay. This is made of metal, with flanges inside that 

 guide the wads, and keep them from tearing down the 

 edges of the shells. The receptacle for the shell to 

 set in is of wood. The base of the shell setting into a 

 cavity to hold it securely ; where the cap comes there 

 is a hole drilled sufficiently large that by no possible 

 means can the edges of the cap touch the hard wood. 

 This is a slow process, but accurate. The better 

 way is to buy at some gun store a loading block 

 that will load fifty shells at one time. Granting this 

 to be done, let us together load fifty shells for duck- 

 shooting. Placing the shell case on a solid foundation, 

 perfectly level, we put the 10 ga. shells in. Our 

 powder is in a dish or box large at the top so we can 

 dip in handily. 4 1-2 dms. are put in each shell 

 through a funnel ; then we tap the box lightly with a 

 wooden mallet, settling the powder and making all 

 charges level. Next, we put in a 10 ga. card wad. 

 The reason for doing this is that the wad is dry, con- 

 taining no oil, besides, it is stiff, and holds the powder 

 compactly. Now, the next wadding must be large, 

 thick, and supplied with oil sufficient to slightly lu- 

 bricate the barrels. There is a great diversity of opin- 

 ion as to what kind of wads to use at this point in 

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