The Shot-Gun. 781 



As far back as 1787, M. Magne de Marolles, in "La Chasse au 

 Fusil," gave an account of choke-boring. But he did not commend 

 the system, which he thought, if advantageous, would greatly increase 

 the recoil of the gun. Colonel Hawker, in "Instructions to Young 

 Sportsmen," London, 18 14, had very strong opinions against choke- 

 bores. We next find mention of choke-boring in 1835, in Deyeux's 

 " Le Vieux Chasseur." 



Mr. Long, in his "American Wild- Fowl Shooting," N. Y., 1879, 

 gives the invention of a really successful mode of choke-boring to Jere- 

 miah Smith, of Rhode Island, who discovered its merits in 1827. From 

 him it was learned by Nathaniel Whitman, of Mansfield, Mass., and 

 the method was practiced by Joseph Tonks, of Boston, who, in 1870, 

 made such a remarkably close shooting gun for Mr. Long that he 

 informed his brother sportsmen of its remarkable power, and these 

 choke-bores of Tonks came rapidly in favor with duck-shooters. In 

 1872, he explained this mode of boring to a gunsmith named John- 

 son, of Monmouth, 111., who subsequently rebored to a choke the 

 guns of many sportsmen. In 1872, Robert M. Faburn took out a 

 patent for an expanding-bit, which gave to barrels a relief near the 

 muzzle, producing what is known as the "jug," or "tulip choke." 

 But Faburn's mode of boring was not that practiced by Tonks ; the 

 latter, Mr. Long says, bored his barrel a true cylinder from the 

 breech to where the construction began near the muzzle. This is the 

 mode of boring which Mr. Greener has claimed as his invention, and 

 he no doubt invented it, but many years subsequent to Mr. Tonks's 

 practice of it. Mr. Long states that Tonks's choke-boring doubled 

 the closeness of pattern on the target at forty yards and increased its 

 killing range by twenty-five yards. 



The choke-bore now almost universally adopted by gunmakers 

 is as follows : Taking a twelve-gauge gun as an example, the con- 

 struction of the bore from the front of the breech-chamber to within 

 one and a half inch of the muzzle amounts to about Tooth of an 

 inch. At one and a half inch from the muzzle begins a sharp con- 

 traction which, in the length of one inch, equals joooth of an inch. 

 The last half inch of the bore is a true cylinder. 



The guns usually used by sportsmen are of 4, 8, 10, 12, and 16 

 gauges. The charges of powder and shot with which these different 

 gauges are loaded are as follows : 



The four-bore gun is a single 44-inch barrel gun. weighing about 



