THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
has the decided advantage.” He admits, however, the superiority of the 
detonator for shooting diving birds at night with the ordinary gun, as 
they had no longer time to duck to the flash. The improvements made by 
English gunmakers for their sporting customers were naturally followed 
for military purposes, but only at a respectful distance; the conversion of 
the Army musket or ‘‘ Brown Bess ” from the flint lock to the percussion 
system does not seem to have been completed till 1842. 
The use of flint-lock guns has not altogether ceased. They are still 
made for export to savage lands, and the industry of making gun flints, 
which has been carried on at Brandon in Suffolk for hundreds of years, is 
still practised there. 
The muzzleloader thus arrived at its final perfection, and as used in 
the middle of the last century was a weapon of which both the maker 
and the user might be proud. The calibre, according to the individual’s 
taste, was usually from 11 to 16. 
Greener, in 1846, speaks of a 15 bore as being the best compromise 
for all circumstances, and says that ‘‘ this size will long hold a position 
in the front rank of sporting guns.” Another writer, in 1855, recommends 
a gun of 14 or even 16 bore as preferable to the heavier 9 bore at that 
time most in fashion. A third author, in 1861, advises a gun of any calibre 
from 12 to 16 for partridges, and from 11 to 14 for grouse and blackgame. 
We thus see that though larger bores than formerly were in use, and 
such sizes as the 20 to 24 gauge of Joe Manton’s time were no longer 
normal, there was not yet the tendency to standardization which has 
become so marked a feature of breech -loading days. Variations in calibre 
only affect, as regards the muzzleloader, the wadding. Within limits, 
any sporting powder and any size of shot was suitable for any sporting 
gun. The possession of a wad punch of the size to suit his gun enabled 
the sportsman to cut bis own waddings, for which old hats (” hats with 
naps,” as Mr Cox says in the famous farce) furnished what was accepted 
as the best material. The enclosure of the whole charge in a cartridge 
capable of being used in a gun of only one calibre was a great step towards 
reducing the variety of calibres used. Who ever hears now of the 15 bore 
which Greener regarded as ideal ? 
The muzzleloader was rapid and certain in ignition, and the rapidity 
of loading bad been much advanced by the fashion of using a heavy loading 
rod, hung on a leather tab attached to a button on the coat, in place 
of the ramrod which had at each shot to be taken from its place under 
300 
