26 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
case. The recoil in such a gun is naturally heavy, and an 
india-rubber heel-plate or recoil-pad, as it is called, is advisable. 
When ordering a gun of this kind sportsmen should not forget 
that they will in all probability be using it in much heavier 
clothes than they ordinarily wear in order to protect themselves 
from intense cold. This means that the shoulder will be much 
more thickly padded, and consequently the length of the gun- 
stock must be adapted to these conditions. Again, unless 
the stock is sufficiently short, the rubber recoil-pad will stick 
against the coat when the gun is being brought up smartly 
and the alignment will be spoilt. 
I may remark here that a vast number of sportsmen shoot 
with stocks which are far too long for them, though they do 
not realise it. A well-known gunmaker has given it as his 
opinion that a sportsman, especially a wildfowler using a heavy 
gun, shoots best with a gun which is quite a quarter-inch shorter 
in the stock than a gun which he thinks suits him when trying 
it in the shop. 
In regard to the shooting capacities of 8-bores, records 
of actual experience form the only test. Below I give some 
authenticated instances, the first concerning a double 8-bore 
built by Messrs. Tolley ; the second, a gun by Mr. W. W. 
Greener. The records appeared in the Fzel/d and Land and 
Water respectively. 
Messrs. Tolley’s gun :— 
‘“‘Six shots at single rooks, sitting on a stone wall, 83 yards’ 
distance from the hall door. First, one pellet passing through head 
and one in back; second shot, bird winged; third shot, killed, one 
pellet passing through neck, one in breast, and one leg broken ; fourth 
shot, bird flew away, apparently not touched ; fifth shot, killed, one 
pellet in breast, one wing and one leg broken; sixth shot, killed, 
one pellet through head, one under wing, and one near vent. 
“‘Six shots at single birds, 115 yards distant, killed second, 
fourth, and fifth shots ; the fourth flew away for about thirty yards, and 
then dropped dead. One shot at six pigeons, 137 yards distant, killed 
