GUNS AND DOGS n 



The i6-gauge has many advocates. I have seen 

 excellent work done with it, and have found it light 

 and serviceable in partridge shooting. Much smaller 

 bores are used, but 1 do not think well of a smaller 

 gauge than i6, since there is more danger of wound- 

 ing birds with small guns, and the sportsman should 

 always try to kill " clean." The 14-gauge is very 

 little used, but 1 have owned such a gun and am 

 inclined to think it a little better for upland field 

 shooting than either the 12 or 16, but the 14 is used 

 so little that it is difficult in most places to get ammu- 

 nition to fit it. The heavy lo-gauge was, a few years 

 ago, carried in many fields, but it is seldom seen 

 to-day excepting where it belongs, in the duck blinds, 

 when the game is the wild geese and the heavy- 

 plumaged sea-fowl. Larger guns are not found in 

 the equipment of many sportsmen. They are pro- 

 hibited by law in some of the States. The only 

 persons who ever used the swivel-gun or cannon 

 were the market gunners, and they have almost every- 

 where been put out of business by legal enactments. 



It is all important in selecting a gun that it fit the 

 shooter. The fit of the gun is far more important 

 than the fit of the clothes. Good shooting is depend- 

 ent upon it. A gun which fits is said to " come up " 

 well or handle well. By that is meant that when 

 it is tossed suddenly to the shoulder it will be so 

 poised that the eye will see along the barrel and the 

 aim be true without further adjustment of the gun. 

 Some shooters prefer a straight stock ; others a 

 crooked one. The beginner should take the gun 

 which for him comes up the best. Many years 



