MANAGEMENT OF THE PUNT-GUN. 131 



The gun being charged with cannon powder, and the nipple care- 

 fully wiped, some fine grain gunpowder must be drilled into the 

 nipple, by means of a tiny copper or brass tube, made for the pur- 

 pose ; and the nipple being filled and capped, the percussion gun is 

 completely ready. There is no quicker or better method of loading 

 the punt-gun, that I ever saw or heard of, than this. 



I recommend oakum* for loading, as far preferable to cut or 

 punched wads, which have lately been introduced, and which I have 

 often used, but never with the satisfaction which attends oakum 

 wadding. Wads cut with a punch answer admirably for small guns, 

 and of course no sportsman would use anything else ; but, be they of 

 ever so thick a substance, they are not desirable either for punt or 

 stanchion guns. 



The wadding placed over a charge of powder which is to scatter 

 from J Ib. to 1^ Ib. of shot should be a tough and solid substance, 

 and the larger the bore the thicker must be the wad. Throughout 

 my experience I have never seen anything so well suited to the 

 purpose as a ball of oakum, which, when rammed over the powder, 

 remains firmer than any punched wad yet invented ; and I have 

 always found my guns throw the shot sharper and more compact with 

 an oakum wad than with anything else. There is another advantage, 

 in the event of having occasion to draw the charge from the barrel. 

 The spiral-worm will take firm hold of the oakum wad, because of the 

 stringy nature of the material ; and be it ever so firmly embedded in 

 the barrel, it may be drawn out ; which is not the case with a punched 

 wad the latter being often very difficult to draw from large guns, 

 generally coming out bit by bit, and finally mixing its dusty substance 

 among the charge. 



It may be very desirable to give the young sportsman a caution in 

 drawing a charge from a punt-gun. The spiral-worm used for the 

 purpose is generally steel or iron ; and in screwing it into the powder- 

 wadding he must be cautious ; for if the worm goes through the wad 

 into the powder, and comes in contact with any hard or brittle sub- 

 stance, it may explode the powder and blow him instantly into 

 eternity. Here, again, is another important advantage in the oakum 

 wadding, which may be drawn out without screwing the worm entirely 

 through it, though such could not be done with punched wadding. 



* Col. Hawker, after all his experience, also found that for waddings for punt- 

 guns there was nothing like the best picked oakum. 



