170 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 



RESPECTING 



THE FOWLING PIECE. 



In the choice of a Gun I would recommend every sportsman 

 first to consider the weight he can conveniently carry, strength 

 being a most essential point as well to the safety as the shoot- 

 ing of the barrels. After the weight of the barrels is fixed 

 upon, I turn my attention to the bore and length, and recom- 

 mend the former not to be too wide, as it has two or three bad 

 tendencies : in the first place, if the bore be wide, and the 

 weight limited, it must weaken the barrel. Seventeen gage ( i. e. 

 seventeen balls to a pound ) is a good size, and I think best cal- 

 culated for general use ; but, suppose the weight of your bar- 

 rels is confined to 4?lb or 4|lb. which is a good and proper 

 weight for 17 gage, if barrels of the same weight are made 

 three-fourths of an inch in bore, they are then not only much re- 

 duced in strength and rendered unsafe, but do not shoot so well 

 for want of a proper proportion of metal according to the bore, 

 (I allude to double barrels only;) besides, a wide-bored double gun, 

 unless made excessively heavy, such as no gentleman would wish 

 to carry, is very unpleasant to use, as it must be loaded accord- 

 ing to its bore, and, for want of sufficient metal, it recoils violent- 

 ly ; when, on the contrary, barrels of a less bore, suppose 17 or 

 1 8 gage,the same weight as the wide-bored ones will shoot well,and 

 be perfectly safe : strength is essential in barrels, but I do not 

 recommend any sportsman to have too heavy a gun, that is, 



