330 SHOOTING. 



The usual objection to large shot is, that after it 

 has travelled thirty yards it becomes dispersed ; 

 but let the powder be reduced to 1^ dram, and that 

 objection fails. If it is not overcharged with powder, 

 a light gun will shoot No. 2 shot close enough to 

 bring down game with more certainty, at thirty or 

 forty yards' distance, than if charged with small 

 shot, and two or three drams of powder. 



As few sportmen ever tried so small a charge of 

 powder as 1| dram with so heavy a charge of shot 

 as 2 oz., or as large size as No. 2, we invite a 

 trial of the experiment we are about to suggest, 

 with any gun that may happen to be in their pos- 

 session, not weighing more than 7^ tt>. With the 

 above proportions of powder and shot the shot 

 being oiled let the shooter fire at forty yards, 

 with good elevation, because large shot droops more 

 than small at an unbound book nailed to a wall, 

 with an open newspaper (double sheet) spread in 

 front of it. And afterwards let him charge the same 

 gun with No. 6 or 7 shot, and any variation of the 

 relative proportions of powder and shot that his 

 fancy may suggest, and fire at a similar target. 

 The newspaper will prove that the large shot is 

 carried with sufficient closeness ; and the book will 

 shew which broadside would have told best on a 

 grouse. On opening the book, the large shot will 

 be found to have penetrated farther, and the leaves 

 will be bulged in beyond it. A book presents to 

 the shot an elastic body, like down, through which 

 large shot does not penetrate much further than 

 small, because it has to displace and carry with it 



