470 LEWISES AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



perfect. Foreign builders of good reputations do not build guns 

 at such rates, and the host of imported cheap weapons sold under 

 apparently good names are the work of disreputable makers, who 

 do not hesitate to palm off their trash upon the public by stamping 

 it with names so nearly like those of noted builders as to deceive 

 buyers who are not well posted, and who are attracted by the glitter 

 of cheap polish and tawdry engraving. 



Every additional twenty-five dollars up to double the figure we 

 have named may be profitably expended, and for one hundred and 

 fifty dollars a gun good enough for any reasonable man can be 

 got from either good English or good home makers. It is notice- 

 able that guns at one hundred and fifty dollars from English build- 

 ers of repute are less highly engraved than those of American 

 make, ornamentation being made to give way to sound work, duty 

 and dealers' profits, so that the guns can be put upon the market at 

 paying rates, yet sustain their makers' reputations. Under one 

 hundred and twenty-five dollars we would prefer an American 

 gun, but at this figure and upwards English guns may be admitted 

 to competition, and a buyer may suit his fancy for either with con- 

 fidence and safety. 



THE BEST GUN FOR GENERAL USE. 



There has been for a number of years a rage for guns of large 

 bore and great weight, but the labor of carrying such in the field 

 has produced a reaction that runs to the opposite extreme, and in 

 place of ten bores weighing from nine and a half to eleven pounds, 

 we find fourteen, sixteen, and twenty bores, some of them as light 

 as five and a half pounds. Guns of both extremes may be ad- 

 missible for special work, but we do not think them the best for 

 general use, and after many years of practical experience in the 

 field we have fixed upon a twelve bore weighing from seven and a 

 half to eight and a half pounds, and with barrels twenty-eight or 

 thirty inches long, according as the shooting is chiefly in cover or 

 the open, as the best all-round gun a sportsman can have. Prop- 

 erly bored and loaded it will kill all game shot over dogs, and on 



