338 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
Another point worthy of notice is this, that the breast 
of all wild fowl is nearly impenetrably cuirassed against 
shot by the dense cushion of down which envelopes it, and 
that a blow behind is rarely on the instant effective to 
bring down the fowl. So that unless the charge take 
effect in the head and neck, well before the wing, or a 
pinion be broken, the shot is generally thrown away. It 
is, therefore, scarcely possible to fire too far in advance of 
a single bird, crossing or passing over the gun at from 
forty to sixty yards’ distance. 
The guns most generally used are double-barrels of 
twelve or fourteen pounds’ weight, and about 8 calibre; I 
greatly advise, however, the use of two single guns, each 
of fourteen lbs. and 5 gauge, which will carry a quarter of 
a lb. of shot with ease from the shoulder, will chamber BB 
as easily as the others will No. 2—will recoil less, and will 
do their work at flocks far more effectively at long or short 
ranges. 
These guns, moreover, are infinitely safer, and are 
handled as readily, if lightened toward the muzzle by 
removing the ramrod and ramrod pipes, using a detached 
loading-rod instead, and if needful, improving the balance 
of the piece by loading the butt with lead. A little prac- 
tice will soon enable a sportsman to use two of these guns 
quickly enough to discharge both into the same flock, and 
if he succeed in doing so, great will be the havoc he will 
make. 
Another method, much employed in this paradise of 
duck shooters, is to tole the ducks, as it is called, while 
they are feeding along shore, quite out of range, into 
