300 GUNS AND CHARGES 



or incur the extra recoil in using such ' catch-penny ' 

 weapons. The best proportions for a 12 bore, and 

 the handiest, is perhaps a 6lb. gun with 30-inch barrels, 

 and provided that such gun is properly loaded, there 

 is no recoil ; but with a 5 lb. or 5I lb. 20-bore, the 

 stocks of which are at times hollowed out on the sides, 

 there is more recoil than in a i6-bore. 



The old-fashioned i6-bore muzzle-loaders were 

 wonderfully good killing guns ; and I have never seen 

 a breech-loader of the same bore equal their powers. 

 I have in my possession one, a 14-bore, made for me 

 by Dickson, of Edinburgh, many years ago, and it is 

 as good as ever. This gun made some extraordinary 

 good shooting in Canada, at cariboo and moose, with 

 bullets, up to 120 yards. Nor have I, during a long 

 experience, ever known a gun able to shoot a bullet 

 truly over 60 yards at the outside. I also had another 

 14-bore muzzle-loader, made by Rigby, which was 

 an exceptionally good gun at wild fowl. I gave it 

 to Captain Colquhoun, for he took a fancy to it. 

 The plating of these two guns, and another also, 

 made by Rigby, was very perfect, and in those days 

 no one could beat my old friend John Rigby in boring 

 either a gun or a rifle. He also made a :3-bore 

 breech-loader for a brother of mine, now deceased ; 

 and this was also an extraordinary gun, and shot as 

 well as any muzzle-loader. Everything in a gun 

 depends on the boring : if that and the balance are 

 good, the rest depends on the user. 



Boring is of the greatest consequence. There are 

 many guns in the market which are highly finished, 

 yet their barrels are often very inferior, and such are 

 certainly not worth the fancy prices asked for them. 



