44 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH-LOADERS. 



made in the minutiae of the manufacture ; and now 

 it is the general impression of those acquainted with 

 the arm, that the breech-loader, with a slight addi- 

 tional increase of powder, shoots both stronger and 

 closer than its rival. In the pigeon-match between 

 the nobility and gentry of England in 1863, described 

 in the London Field, volume xxiii., p. 389, where it 

 is to be supposed that the best implements the 

 country could furnish were used, and where some 

 of the shooting was done at thirty yards, the first 

 and second prizes were both taken by breech-loaders. 

 With all allowance for the quality of the marksman, 

 the quality of the gun that wins a match at English 

 " blue-rocks " must unquestionably be good ; and. 

 this, the universal experience of those matter-of-fact 

 John Bulls, who test everything by success, has en- 

 tirely confirmed. 



A trial of guns was made in 1859, and the results 

 were published in tabular form in The Shot-Gun 

 and Sporting JRifle, by Stonehenge, p. 304. The 

 targets were made of double bag-cap paper, 90 Ibs. 

 to the ream, circular, thirty inches in diameter, with 

 a centre of twelve inches square, and were nailed 

 against a smooth surface of deal boards. The centres 

 were composed of forty thicknesses for forty yards, 

 and twenty for sixty yards, and weighed eighteen 

 and nine ounces respectively, with such slight varia- 

 tion as will always occur in brown paper. The 

 powder was Laurence's No. 2, the shot No. 6, con- 

 taining 290 pellets to the ounce, and the charges 

 were weighed in every instance. 



