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the shoulder, and when expecting a shot the muzzle always pointed 

 skywards and never horizontally. As a boy I was so taught, and 

 following the instructions, even when shooting alone, I got into the 

 habit and could not with ease to myself carry a gun in any other 

 position. In every detail I was cautious and careful with firearms, 

 and had a safety-guard to my gun which prevented it going off at 

 full cock, except when the guard was pressed and trigger pulled at 

 the same time. I don't think any gun should be made without such, 

 and still the simple appendage is seldom seen. I never could endure 

 a hammerless gun ; one never knows whether it is cocked or not ; 

 besides, cropped of the hammers, a gun has the appearance of a horse 

 without ears. 



Treatises in the sporting press upon choosing guns and shooting 

 straight may be measured by the yard, but I am quite content to think 

 that to enable him to kill birds with it, a gun must '* fit " a man 

 accurately and be properly charged. To find out if it does is simply as 

 follows :— See that it comes up to the shoulder handily, and well 

 clear of the armpit. Fix your eyes on some small object at any distance 

 between fifteen and fifty yards, bring the gun up quickly to the 

 shoulder, and then shut the left eye. If the object is covered in a direct 

 line from breech to muzzle, the gun suits (or " fits ") and you can kill 

 with it ; but if you can see along the barrel, though the muzzle may be 

 right on the mark, or that the breech may be on the mark and the 

 muzzle under it, then the gun does not fit, and you will shoot over or 

 under, as the case may be. 



There are, of course, men who see with one eye better than the other, 

 and others whose peculiarities of vision require specific modes of 

 measurement for a gun. Luckily I know nothing of these infirmities, 

 therefore I can't suggest provision for their individual treatment. 



In Land and Water we had early in 1892 some letters upon the 

 subject of "jump and recoil." As is generally the way with people 

 engaging in a written controversy, they resort to animadversion 

 upon each other because there exists a difference of opinion, so it was 

 with some of those gentlemen who entered the lists upon this subject. 



Peace to your manes, dear old Jorrocks ! You, indeed, gave a true 

 exposition of the general run of controversial scribes in your lecture 

 at Handley Cross, when you referred to how writers of books upon 

 the horse abused each other. Yes, true it is that after having read 

 treatises by different parties upon the same subject, ** one arrives at 

 the grand climax of hignorance instead of gleaning wisdom as one 

 went " ! 



I owned only three guns in my life, and I don't think I shot out 

 of more than half a dozen others. I am, therefore, a very indifferent 

 authority upon the subject of jump and recoil ; nevertheless I will say 

 a few words about it. I have no doubt many guns jump and others 

 recoil, while some do both the one and the other. I am however 

 of opinion that if a man buys a first-class gun, and charges it with a 

 properly proportioned quantity of powder and shot confined in a well- 



