372 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



beater's skin, bladder, or parchment. Fair patching 

 for deep-seated balls may be made of good strong 

 linen smeared until stiff with hot tallow. This makes 

 good patching for a muzzle-loader. Parchment is the 

 best, and under the head of 'dressing buckskin I will 

 show how to make some very easily that will be far 

 superior in toughness to any you can buy. The 

 material is cut into strips that will roll once and a half 

 times or twice or two and a half times around the 

 ball, according to thickness of material. It is wet 

 with a little gum-arabic water, then rolled around 

 the ball so as to cover about two thirds of its base, and 

 the whole should then be dropped into a hole in a 

 block to dry in that shape. You will, however, do 

 well to buy a cartridge already patched and examine 

 it before following directions from any one. 



To load round balls so as to shoot accurately in a 

 breech-loader is no trifling matter and has puzzled 

 many a one. To be shot naked they must be made 

 very hard. They must fit very tight. Plently of 

 grease must be put around them and a heavy leather 

 wad below them. Then they may work fairly well. 



But for good work they also must be patched. They 

 cannot, however, be patched and pushed into the 

 shell as into the muzzle of a muzzle-loader. The 

 shoulder of the rifle will strip off the patch half the 

 time. The following plan I find the most certain, and 

 have picked up scores of patches in front of the rifle 

 without finding any sign of stripping, tearing, or burn- 

 ing. Putting on a thick leather wad wads are even 

 more essential under a round ball than under the 

 cylindrical, as the fire leaks around them more I cut 

 a strip of strong parchment well greased and about 

 three quarters of an inch wide and just long enough 



