Care should be taken to leave a little piece of 

 the shell uncut, as it will keep the shot end of the 

 shell from sliding down the barrel prematurely and 

 bursting the gun. The first time I tried a split 

 shell I practiced on a target nailed to a tree, until I 

 found where to cut the shell to keep it from break- 

 ing before it hit the mark. A few days afterward 

 I was duck-shooting, and a large flock of blue-bills 

 lit about 1 00 yards from my stool. They proved 

 so attractive that several single birds that would 

 have come to my decoys swung off and joined 

 them. At last I decided to scare them away, and 

 thinking of the " split-shell, " I shot one at the flock, 

 aiming high, and to my great surprise, I killed one. 



There is danger, however, in shooting a spKt- 

 shell in anything but a moderately choked, or cylin- 

 der bore barrel. Buckshot are very satisfactory for 

 big-game hunting; they carry well, and have a fair 

 penetration; but big game hunting with the shot- 

 gun will never be popular except in a very bushy 

 country, as little skill is required to hit a large ani- 

 mal with shot, at close range. If food is scarce 

 the shotgun is indeed a valuable possession. 



For field shooting the most popular gun is one 

 that has a cylinder right, and a moderately choked 

 left barrel. Ducks are killed at longer ranges than 

 upland birds, and their feathers are thicker; so a 

 gun with a moderately choked right, and close 

 choked left barrel, is used. 



Due to modern methods and machinery, there 

 has been a long step made in the manufacture of 

 firearms. Besides improving in construction, they 



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