CHAPTER XVIII 



LOADERS AND GUN CLEANING 



IT is only by practice that the loader can learn to come 

 into sympathetic practice with the shooter. The har- 

 mony between the two must be complete, if success is 

 to be looked for, a harmony so perfect as to make the 

 practice of exchanging guns almost as automatic as a 

 machine. But the first point for the loader to remember, 

 and never to forget, is that the gun is an enemy to life, 

 and that no weapon, whether it be 1 2 -bore gun, fowling- 

 piece, rifle, air-gun, or penny pistol, should ever be 

 directed, either loaded or unloaded, with the barrels 

 pointing at any living thing, except for the purpose of 

 killing. The muzzle of a gun should always be inclined 

 to the earth or to the sky, clear from everything whose 

 life is of value. If these principles are borne into the 

 intelligence, they will assist the loader in carrying out 

 his duties with success. In loading he must remember 

 to keep the point of the barrels clear of every one, " to 

 depress the muzzle while turning away from the shooter, 

 and in shutting the gun always to raise the stock to the 

 barrels, and not the barrels to the stock, so that if by 

 any accident the charge explodes, it can only make a 



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