26 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



to the shoulder, alters a shooter's method of doing this ; and 

 although the change may be only slight and temporary, it is 

 enough to prevent an accurate selection in a gun-shop. The 

 written measure reduces the number of guns to be tried, or 

 handled, by 90 per cent., which greatly assists the process of 

 selection, not only in the way named above, but by allowing 

 more time for a thorough trial of each. 



If a young shooter is going to shoot in parties, and not by 

 himself, the bore of his gun is practically settled for him. It 

 must be 12 bore, because otherwise he can be no help to 

 other shooters in the lending of cartridges, nor they to him. 

 This is very important, and becomes more so in exact degree 

 as bags increase. The ammunition cart cannot be everywhere 

 at once, and the work to be done by a host's servants should 

 never be unnecessarily added to when they are most busy. 



On the other hand, it is quite permissible to take a 

 20 bore on to the moors to shoot over dogs in early August. 

 Some people think that a 20 bore shoots closer than a 

 12 gauge, but that is a mistake. It spreads its shot quite as 

 much as the larger bore, but it has fewer shot, and consequently 

 the pattern is thinner. Few people have either kind bored to 

 shoot as closely as possible, but when each is so bored the 

 12 gauge will always be the more powerful, unless heavy 

 20 bores are built to shoot 12 gauge loads. 



This does not imply that a shooter will always get the most 

 out of a 1 2 bore. 



Lightness of weight assists walking, and also quickness in 

 shooting, so that it is possible in some hands for the worst 

 gun to do the most work. It is the fashion to use a pretty 

 heavy gun for driving ; the greater the head of game there is, 

 the more certainly does one require a gun to kick but little ; 

 and there is no cure for kick except weight. For shooting over 

 dogs the weight is generally a greater objection than recoil, 

 because the number of shots fired will not be likely to be so 

 many as to make a heavy recoil unbearable by too frequent 

 repetition. Still, for the sake of a slight difference of weight, 

 it is not usually necessary to have different guns for driving 



