ANCIENT AND MIDDLE AGE SHOOTING 17 



shooter had to see the birds on the ground before he could 

 bring his lumbering weapon to bear, and begin to let it off". 

 This probably continued long after the wheel-lock was invented, 

 in 1515 A.D. 



The flint and steel method of ignition enabled the shot 

 gun to be used on flying game, but the flint and steel came in 

 somewhere about the year 1600, and shooting flying game did 

 not become general until after 1700 A.D. 



Meantime there had been royal prohibitions in this country, 

 as well as in France, against the use of hail-shot, and it can well 

 be understood, at a time when shooting at coveys on the ground 

 was considered no breach ot sporting etiquette, that some 

 restraint became necessary. Before the use of the flint and 

 steel, the heavier weapons were employed by using for them a 

 stand to rest the muzzle upon, and this was made necessary, not 

 so much by reason of the weight as by the uncertainty of the 

 precise moment of the explosion, and the expediency of keeping 

 the weapon " trained " on the object until the powder chose to 

 catch fire and explode. 



Before the invention of the flint and steel, the value of 

 rifling had been discovered. There is a doubt whether the dis- 

 covery is due to the late fifteenth or the early sixteenth century, 

 but at any rate it was well known on the Continent about 

 1540 A.D. There are rifled barrels at Zurich arsenal that have 

 been there since 1544. The most ancient in this country was 

 brought from Hungary in 1848, and bears the date 1547. There 

 has been an idea that the first grooves in weapons were not 

 spiralled but straight, but this does not seem to be correct, as 

 all the most ancient grooved weapons known are spirals of more 

 or less rapid turn. Some of them have a variation of twist 

 within themselves. There have been many straight grooved 

 weapons, but the object of them is lost. It has been suggested 

 that they were used for shot, but they could have had no 

 advantage over smooth bores for that purpose, and no advantage 

 over muskets for ball. Nevertheless, the science of ballistics 

 was not generally understood when they were made, and 

 probably a rifled shot gun would have been attractive, as an 



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