- EVOLUTION OF GUNS AND RIFLES 
also famous in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, not only for the 
general quality of their productions, but particularly for artistic finish 
and ornamentation. 
By the early years of the eighteenth century the sporting gun was coming 
into general use in England, but it is noteworthy that the sporting books 
of the period have very little to say about it. Thus Blome, in “ The Gentle- 
man’s Recreation,”a comprehensive work containing little original matter, 
makes but little mention of guns for killing animals of the chase, though 
he says that the gun may be used by the keeper to maim a fat buck out 
of the herd, so that he may easily be run down by the hounds, or to kill 
the hunted stag when at bay. He also shows the use of the spring gun to 
kill rabbits. Coming to the shooting of birds, he dismisses it in four 
pages, though he allows that “it is now the Mode to shoot flying”; he 
declares it a “vulgar Error” to suppose that it is necessary to shoot 
ahead of the birds. Two of his four pages are devoted to the use of the 
stalking-horse and to movable screens. For small birds, the barrel is to be 
4 feet 6 inches long; for wildfowl, about 6 feet long, “ with an indifferent 
bore under the size of a musket.” The musket bore was about | inch. 
“For the Stocke, Walnut tree or Ash are very good for use, but Maple is 
the finest, and best for Ornament.” The killing of birds was still done 
almost entirely by nets, snares and birdlime. In Nicholas Cox’s “ Gentle- 
man’s Recreation,” 1721, the use of a stalking-horse of painted canvas is 
described. When, however, we are told that some stalk with stags similarly 
made, the colour lively painted, so that the birds cannot discern the 
fallacy, or behind painted canvas made into the shape of a willow or poplar, 
we may conclude that the fowl of 200 years ago were preternaturally 
innocent, or that the author is rather a writer of books than a gunner. 
In reading the various encyclopaedias of sport and recreation published at 
this period we find clear evidence that on the bulk of the subjects treated 
of the information is at least second hand. 
The “Compleat Sportsman,” of 1718, by one Giles Jacob, is written with 
a more practical knowledge of shooting. It states that “ in ancient times 
the best fowling-piece was thought to be that which had the longest Barrel, 
and a Barrel to a gun five Foot and a half, or Six Foot in length was esteemed 
a moderate Size; but of late these Guns are entirely disused, unless it be 
for the killing of Water -Fowl.” The lighter gun, with a barrel about 3| feet 
long, is recommended for ordinary shooting, but it must not be too light, 
for safety’s sake; the gun for shooting flying should be nearly of musket 
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