430 UPLAI^D SHOOTING. 



of the argument only, are under the impression that it is 

 more sportsmanlike to kill a pigeon with a twelve than 

 with a ten bore gun; they think it requires finer holding 

 and better marksmanship, while as a matter of fact, both 

 guns being equally choked, the ten-gauge will put its 

 load more compactly, at the distance within which pigeons 

 are shot, than the much-lauded twelve. The ten-gauge 

 has one advantage, it shoots harder, for it stands to 

 reason that four and a half drams of powder will drive 

 one and a quarter ounces of shot harder than three and a 

 half; but this very reason ought to carry the ten-bore in a 

 winner, for certainly it is more humane to shoot a bird 

 with the more powerful shooting weapon, in other words, 

 the better killer, than with the weaker one, and, as both 

 can be made to shoot about alike as regards pattern, 

 with the advantage in favor of the larger bore, there can 

 be no good reason advanced why the ten should go to the 

 wall to make way for the twelve, unless it be the same 

 grounds that consign my lady' s last bonnet to the depths 

 of her darkest closet — ^to presently appear in the latest 

 fad from Paris. With men, in guns, substitute London 

 for Paris, and, presto ! we have the solution to the 

 problem. 



The trap-gun, pure and simple, should possess two 

 qualities, viz., be a perfect fit and an even, regular, hard 

 shooter; these are imperative. Other essentials, that so 

 largely go to make up a first-class field or duck gun, are 

 not of such vital necessity here. For example, we see in 

 every club guns that are so constructed that water could 

 be poured into the breech and lock mechanism, by 

 simply pushing the top lever back and withdrawing the 

 extension rib from its bed. Dust, sand, salt air, rain, in 

 fact anything within a reasonable limit as to size, could 

 be dropped into this catch-all; and yet, in trap-shooting, 

 such a chasm, opening wide to receive whatever may 



