46 FIELD SHOOTING. 



fort, Kentucky, in which one man used a breech- 

 loader and the other a muzzle-loader. As soon as 

 they began to shoot I saw that the breech-loader, 

 although it was in the hands of the best man of 

 the two, would be beaten. And why? Because 

 his cartridges were not properly filled. The wads 

 on the powder, instead of lying flat and snug, were 

 often partly edgewise. It was the same with the 

 wads on the shot, besides which the cartridges 

 were not well turned down over the wads. The 

 shooter who had lost the match blamed his gun, 

 which was a light one, and sent for one of ten 

 pounds weight, like mine. But if he is as careless 

 in loading his cartridges for the heavy gun as he 

 was when he had the light one, the shooting will 

 not be any better. I could have told him how to 

 win, but it was not my business to interfere in 

 the matter. The shot in the cartridges should 

 have been taken out, the wads sent home true, 

 and the ends of the cases turned down close after 

 the shot was replaced and evenly wadded. 



The first time I visited New York and other 

 Eastern States for the purpose of pigeon-shooting 

 I spent some days with Miles Johnson, of Yard- 

 ville, Mercer County, New Jersey. He is a 

 famous pigeon-shooter and an excellent field sports- 



