GUNS. 



553 



for snipe, grouse, hares, turkeys and ducks, and for deer, when 

 loaded with buck-shot. However, a No. 12 gauge is serviceable 

 enough, the odds against it being merely that it will not stand so 

 heavy a charge as a ten gauge, and of course will not bag the 

 game shot at, as often or as easily as the other. For wild fowl 

 shooting, use a gun from nine and a half to ten pounds weight, 

 thirty-two inch barrels, and ten gauge. For " point shooting," on 

 the Chesapeake Bay and similar places, a fourteen pound, five to 

 eight bore, single gun, is the most effective. 



Guns for natural history specimens should be sixteen bore, and 

 twenty-six inch barrel ; load with mustard shot and a half drachm 

 of powder. No gun will do itself justice or give proper execution 

 unless it is properly loaded. Correct loading used to be acquired by 

 careful observation and practice ; but now we have a table of pro- 

 portionate charges for different gauges, which has been prepared 

 by Major H. W. Merrill, United States Army, to whom all inexpe- 

 rienced sportsmen owe a large debt of obligation. The table, 

 which is herewith given, is based upon the rule that " The propor- 

 tionate charges of shot guns of different bores are to each other in 

 the ratio of the area of their bores," 



Note. — The unit of measure is three drachms of powder and one ounce of shot 

 for a No. 14 gun. 



The charges given are not too light for small game within forty 

 five or fifly yards ; for young boys they are too heavy, and may be 

 reduced one-fourth. The Major advises that beyond fifty yards, 

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