ON THE CHOICE OF SHOT GUNS 



THE first thing for the novice to do is to get advice. The 

 difficulty will not be in the getting but in the selection 

 afterwards. The majority of experienced shooters will not 

 bother the novice with their views, but will advise him to go to 

 the best gun-maker he can afford to employ and take his 

 advice ; but this amounts also to taking his guns, and it may be 

 that a novice can do much better than that. The majority of 

 shooters when they know what they want can possibly afford 

 best guns from best makers, and perhaps have enough sport to 

 justify the 1 80 guineas that a pair will cost. But all shooters 

 at the beginning cannot afford to find out their requirements 

 upon anything of the sort ; this is proved by the much greater 

 number of second and third grade than of best guns made and 

 sold every year. 



Besides, the majority of gun-shops are stocked heavily with 

 second-hand and second-quality guns, that can be bought from 

 1$ to 25 each, and the most difficult second-hand guns to 

 find in London are those of the best makers, who only turn out 

 one quality, namely the best, which are worth more. 



It would be an invidious selection to name the best gun- 

 makers, and impossible besides, for their products are the 

 offspring of the brain, eye, and hand of the cleverest workmen, 

 sometimes, but rarely, their nominal makers, and these crafts- 

 men are human : they change, and even die. That is the reason 

 that the best guns of one season do not always come from the same 

 shops as the best of another. But not one amateur expert in a 

 hundred, and not one shooter in ten thousand, will be able to 

 detect the difference by external examination. It is there, and 



