104 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
snapped either with or without the copper caps, except in 
the act of shooting. When the gun is loaded, the flash of 
the detonating powder never enters the inside of the bar- 
rel; but if snapped upon the caps, when the gun is un- 
loaded, it drives the detonating gas into the barrels, which 
creates rust;* and if done without the caps, the works 
are liable to be injured, by reason of the cocks meeting no 
resistance in their fall, as in flint locks. 
“The detonating pegs, cones, or nipples, will last a 
season’s hard shooting—” I have known them to last half a 
dozen—“ but should by no means be used after the holes 
are worn large by repeated firing; as it will weaken the 
force of the gun, and damage the locks.” 
Should it be found necessary to remove the locks— 
and this will be necessary whenever the gun shall have 
been immersed in water, exposed to heavy rain, snow, mist 
or salt air, and whenever any roughness or rigidity shall 
be discovered in the working of the locks, and advisable 
at least so often as at the beginning and end of every 
season—the mode of doing so is as follows : 
Take out the lock screw, which passes through from 
the left to the right side immediately in front of the cock; 
and with a gentle shake, or a very slight tap on the inner 
side of the strikers, the locks will be dislodged from their 
places. On no account, in case of their adhesion, insert 
any thing between the wood and the metal of the locks; 
to do so will invariably bruise the softer substance, injure 
* This gas is far more injurious to the metals than that evolved 
from the combustion of gunpowder, or than that arising from the two 
powders in combination H. W. H. 
