BUCK-SHOT. 165 



for if force be used their regularity of shape will be 

 injured, and their flight will become erratic. Having 

 thus learned the desired size of shot, make a cartridge 

 of tolerably thick paper, carefully place your shot in 

 layers of four each ; with some grease reduced to a 

 liquid consistency from heat, fill up the vacancies 

 between each layer, and as the grease cools and be- 

 comes solid, place in each layer, till the cartridge 

 contains sixteen pellets, when finish your cartridge 

 by inserting a thin, hard wad, turn down the 

 surplus paper over it, and fix with a drop of glue. 

 Since adopting the above method, I have frequently 

 killed wild duck returning of an evening from deer 

 shooting, at ranges far beyond the reach of ordinary 

 drop-shot ; at the same time I would not wish a sports- 

 man to imagine that I would purposely load with this 

 cartridge for duck shooting ; but that I made use of 

 them, as my gun happened at the time to be thus 

 loaded. I am no advocate for long barrels, twenty-six 

 inches being the length of the hardest-shooting shot- 

 guns, for ordinary shot, I have known. But I have 

 observed that long barrels invariably throw buck-shot 

 the best ; possibly the reason is that the missiles are 

 then the less inclined to scatter, or that the friction 

 with such large grain being less, the impetus does 



