436 UPLAXD SHOOTING. 



will admit of no water excepting through, the trigger- 

 plate. It stands to reason that any style of action that will 

 allow water to penetrate into it, or the lock, from above, 

 is a faulty one for duck-guns; and while such systems may 

 do very well for trap-shooting, where a gun is seldom 

 exposed to the rain or snow, yet it should be eschewed 

 when selecting a gun for rough service in the field. 



It is not the writer's object to particularize nor to 

 stigmatize certain makes of guns in this chapter, but it 

 is clear that any gun which, when open or closed, pre- 

 sents a gap, in which water or salt air may easily find its 

 way into its working-parts or mechanism, is decidedly 

 a defective style of gun for the wild-fowler; for, even 

 with the staunchest one, water will eventually get into 

 the joints, and rust them, unless far more than the usual 

 amount of care and elbow-grease (besides other grease) be 

 plentifully and constantly bestowed on them. I will, 

 therefore, merely warn the novice to look to this, and 

 thereby save himself many an hour's hard work, to say 

 nothing of the possibility of premature break-downs, 

 caused from rusty surfaces bearing against each other, 

 and therefore increasing the strain and wear and tear of 

 any piece of machinery. 



A man who habitually uses a field or trap gun under 

 eight pounds in weight and with a crook of say two inches 

 at comb and three at butt, had better choose a rather 

 straighter stock when in quest of a ten or eleven pound 

 gun, especially if long in the barrels. A gun of seven 

 and a half pounds in weight and thirty-inch barrels, that 

 mounts perfectly with a certain crook, would be no crite- 

 rion upon which to order a 10^-pound, thirty-two-inch 

 barrel one. The light gun would naturally come up more 

 easily and with less exertion than the heavier one, so 

 that allowance must be made accordingly, and nothing 

 but experience will teach just how great or little the 



