58 MUZZLE-LOADERS AND BREECH LOADERS. 



muzzle, and the empty case torn away an opera- 

 tion implying neither danger nor difficulty. It is 

 desirable to pour the shot out at the muzzle, lest a 

 pellet lodge under the breech-end of the gun and 

 interfere with its operation. 



" The rapidity with which a succession of shots 

 may be made is urged as one of the chief recom- 

 mendations of the breech-loader ; but rapidity of 

 firing is seldom desired, and the barrels may become 

 heated to danger. The sportsman's every-day suc- 

 cess frequently depends on the range of his gun, but 

 seldom on the loading and firing of it." 



The Dead Shot is an English book ; and in Eng- 

 land there are no rail or bay-snipe; the author, 

 therefore, has never whistled a flock of marble- 

 winged willet or golden-brown marliu back, time 

 after time, to the fatal stand, and delivered repeated 

 discharges into their thinning ranks. But ducks 

 abound there ; and for any person who has been 

 present at the early morning or late evening flight, 

 and has seen and heard the rush of wings innume- 

 rable, when a dozen guns and men to load them 

 would hardly have been enough, to say that " rapi- 

 dity of firing is seldom desirable," is marvellous in- 

 deed. The italicized portion of the last objection 

 further implies that Dead Shot has never used a 

 breech-loader ; for, while in the muzzle-loader the 

 heat of repeated discharges may be dangerous, in a 

 breech-loader it cannot, as paper intervenes between 

 the barrel and the powder. The writer has fired 

 his breech-loader until it was so hot he could not 

 bear his hand on it. 



