JOHN THOMAS, PUNT-GUNNER. 
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trigger having been lost. I myself knew a shooter whose gun-barrel 
and stock were spliced together with waxed cord. Another carried 
a double-barrelled gun, only one barrel of which was used, the other 
having a hole half way up it that the pellets might have trickled 
through. In comparatively recent years, a punt-gun was used 
on Breydon, with an extra length welded on the muzzle end. 
A borrower, not knowing this weakness, fired an extra heavy charge, 
with the result of a great scare to himself, and an explosion at the 
joint, the end “tubing” being thrown far away into the water, 
whence it was some months subsequently fished by a man picking 
for Eels. 
Of course, in the halcyon days of shooting, John made some 
great shots ; and his shop-front, on Fuller’s Hill, would be festooned 
by rows of Wild-fowl, and when better birds were scarce, Gulls 
often adorned his hooks. 1 remember (I believe it was in 1881) his 
killing five Swans, two of which were shot with the punt-gun. These 
ho let lay as they fell, hoping the three that had escaped would 
return for their companions; this they did, with the result that he 
killed them also with his shoulder-gun. Having hung them con- 
spicuously in front of his establishment, Thomas proudly paraded 
before them, but on his attention being called to the fact of their 
being tame ones, they departed, like magic, from their prominent 
positions into oblivion. As a lad I recollect the big dishes and fruit 
trays filled with Dunlins, Ringed Plovers, Knots, Turnstones, Terns, 
Plovers, and the like, that were exposed for sale in the window. 
I once saw the shop smothered with small Waders. He had that 
day secured considerably over a hundred Dunlins at one shot ; others 
brought him many dozens more ; these all lay in order, row upon 
row on fruit trays. That night, with heads under wing, neatly and 
carefully stowed by the “ missus ” and the older girls, twenty-one 
dozen were despatched in hampers to Norwich, twenty- one dozen 
to Bath, and an equal number to London. The family all helped, 
and two daughters and the wife took especial interest in the birds ; 
one daughter, who had a keener discernment than all the rest was 
“ told off,” if need be, to sort and identify the various species, with 
a view to the detection of any rarity amongst the common herd. 
Why John Thomas secured in his day so many rare birds and 
good specimens was because he was most always on Breydon. 
Chance yachting trips enforced occasional absences, but directly he 
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