834 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 24, 1906. 
The Fit of a Gun. 
From \Y. \Y. Greener’s “The Gun and Its Development.” 
Take a gun, and put it up to the shoulder two or three 
times without aiming at anything in particular; if it 
seems to come up easily, and to be under perfect control, 
choose a mark ten or fifteen feet distant, and slightly 
higher than the aimer’s shoulder. Fling up the gun 
quickly while looking steadily at the mark, and im¬ 
mediately the gun is at the shoulder close the left eye 
and glance at once along the rib; the sight on the muzzle 
should cover the object at which the shooter was looking 
as he brought up the gun. If upon this maneuver being 
repeated several times it is found that the gun each 
time covers the mark at which it is aimed, it should be 
tried in like manner at other marks, at different dis¬ 
tances and elevations. If these marks are covered in the 
same manner, the gun may be considered a fit, and a lit¬ 
tle practice will make the shooter quite at home with the 
weapon, it should then be tried at a target. Take a tew 
snap shots at a bullseye, and if the shots are not placed 
central, something is wrong with either the gun or the 
shooter. If a man cannot hit a fixed mark at 30 to 
40yds., every time with a shotgun, he cannot expect to 
hit birds on the wing. 
Tile sportsman who can make his choice out of a large 
stock of guns, or with the assistance of an experienced 
man to guide him, has a great advantage over the man 
whose trials must be made with a few weapons and 
without the help of an expert to correct any faulty ac¬ 
tions which may escape the observation of the shooter. 
For instance, a person adept in the art of gun fitting 
would detect at once whether a second aim was taken in 
aligning the gun, and could immediately so alter a 
dummy try-gun as to come up in the way desired; 
whereas the shooter, if alone, must note where the gun 
points, and calculate what amount of alteration is neces¬ 
sary. 
If a gun is pointed much below the mark at which it is 
aimed, the stock of the gun is too crooked, too short, or 
the gun too heavy. 
If it points above the mark at which it is aimed, it is 
too straight or has too much toe upon the stock. It is 
much better to use a gun that is too straight than one 
that is the reverse, as the author will prove in the para¬ 
graphs on the use of guns. 
If it points to the right, it is cast off too much; if to 
the left, the cast-off is not sufficient. If it is not hori¬ 
zontal, but twisted over so that the right barrel is the 
higher, the stock requires to be twisted over by casting 
off the toe more; if the left barrel is higher (which is 
very rarely the case) both the cast-off of the gun and 
the shape of the butt must be altered. 
The straighter and longer the stock which can be 
manipulated with ease, the better and quicker will be the 
shooting, and less fatiguing the work of a heavy day’s 
shooting. All good guns are so regulated that, aimed 
point blank and dead level along the rib, they will 
center cn the mark at 40yds. distance. 
Some trap shots require their guns to carry as many 
as Gin. high at 40yds.; this is preferable to using a gun 
which shoots high, because, being too straight in the 
stock, it is aimed too high. Misses with a shotgun, as 
with a rifle, more frequently arise from errors in eleva¬ 
tion than the misdirection of the aim. 
The "try-gun” is a gunmaker’s tool, which permits of 
the stock being altered to any length, bend, cast-off, and 
shape of the liutt, and is of use in fitting a sportsman 
who needs a gun of special build. Most of these guns are 
capable of being fired, but, as not one of them handles 
at all like an ordinary gun, it does not follow that, be¬ 
cause a shooter is able to use it with success, a proper 
gun made with the same measurements of stock will 
prove quite suitable. It is a tool which can be used to 
good advantage only when in the hands of an experi¬ 
enced gun-fitter. 
A short gun stock assists the shooter to get up the gun 
freely, but is against his holding it firmly against the 
shoulder; a large butt, not too flat, and with a fairly 
broad toe, is the best for bedding firmly against the 
shoulder; it should, in most cases, be slightly shorter to 
the left edge of the butt-plate than to the right. The 
better and more truly the butt fits the shoulder the more 
comfortable will be the gun in use, and the less appre¬ 
ciable will be the recoil. 
The hand, or the grip of the gun, must not be so 
thick that it cannot be grasped with ease; it may be of 
oval section, or egg shape, with the smallest point at top, 
or, to afford a better grasp, even diamond shape in sec¬ 
tion ; it must not be round, or have too fine or too flat a 
checkering, or feel clumsy, and the fore-end must be 
narrow, standing high from the barrels, and fall full into 
the palm of the left hand when it grips the Darrels. 
It is sometimes said that a sportsman cannot Ishoot 
with a gun that suits him if he varies his clothing; pos¬ 
sibly some men cannot, but they are not good shots, nor 
should they pose as such, for as before stated, the good 
shot, the man who knows how to handle a gun and how 
to aim, will shoot well with any gun. Dr. Carver has in 
a single exhibition shoot of less than an hour’s duration 
shot and performed equally well with a Winchester re¬ 
peating rifle of the military model, a double shotgun of 
2%in. bend, and a double shotgun of 2in. bend. The 
man who really means to shoot well does so irrespective 
of any trifling wrong dimension in the weapon he has to 
use, and the acquisition of the art of shooting enables 
one to do what the hypercritical gun-fitting faddist would 
not attempt, with even the most favorable conditions. 
Of the Shape and Dimensions of Gun Stocks. 
There is no definite authority for the prevailing fashion 
in gun stocks, and the dimensions and shape of this part 
of the gun have given rise to more frequent discussion 
among gunmakers and sportsmen than anything else 
connected with shooting. 
The measures of the gun stock include the bend, the 
length and cast-off. These are of preat importance to 
the user of the gun, and must spit his particular method 
of handling the gun, as well as the stock being of such 
dimensions as the shooter’s build—i. e., length of arm, 
breadth of chest, etc., may determine. 
The measures of a gun stock may be ascertained as 
follows: 
Take a piece of wood or iron, with a perfectly straight 
edge, sufficiently long to reach from the sight on the 
muzzle to the extremity of the butt; lay this straight¬ 
edge along the rib and measure the distance from muzzle 
to heel and from muzzle to comb. This is the bend. The 
lengths required will be from the center of the fore or 
right-hand trigger to the heel, center, and toe respec¬ 
tively, and the depth from the heel to the toe. The cir¬ 
cumference of the hand may be obtained by passing a 
string round it immediately behind the trigger guard, 
and measuring the string. In taking the length, measure 
the extreme length, and not to the edge of the heel¬ 
plate. 
Cast-off is the amount the stock is thrown out of 
truth with the barrels in a lateral direction. Most gun 
stocks are twisted over—that is, the toe of the butt is 
more “cast-off” than the heel—the usual “cast-off” is 
three-sixteenths for heel and three-eighths for toe. 
Balance.—This is always to be measured from the 
breech ends of the barrel. It is best to balance the gun 
on thin string. 
A 12-bore with 30in. barrels, weighing 71bs. or over, 
should balance at about 3in. from the breech; if with 
27in or 28in. barrels and 5%lbs. to Gibs., about 2%in. 
from the breech would be considered a good balance. 
Americans use guns with stocks much more crooked, 
as, when shooting, they keep the head erect; and many 
English colonists follow this rule, the crooked gun stock 
being quite common in South Africa. 
T he lengths of the gun stock from fore trigger to toe 
and heel will regulate the angle of the butt, and the 
cast-off will throw the butt over a little, so that unless 
the butt were rounded or chamfered, its edge only would 
touch against the shoulder. The amount of chamfer re¬ 
quired will depend upon the amount of “cast-off,” and 
the build of the person for whom the gun is intended. 
Dr. YY. F. Carver always shoots with a heel plate not 
only much hollowed—i. e., very much shorter to center 
than to the extremities—but also chamfered so as to fit 
squarely against the muscles of his shoulder. Many 
shooters will find it more comfortable to shoot with a 
gun having the butt so rounded or sloped, than with the 
usual butt, which is of equal length to either edge. 
Guns with stocks from 14in. to 14%in. long, measuring 
from the fore trigger to the center of heel plate, will be 
found in most gunmakers’ shops, and the common “cast¬ 
off” is 3-1G in. at heel and %in. at toe. A sportsman 
above the average height should take a gun stock longer 
than usual, and also one slightly more bent. The' longest 
stock the author has made is 15%in., and the greatest 
bend 4(4in. It rarely happens that stocks shorter than 
13% are required. A shooter with sloping shoulders will 
find that a stock about 2%in. bend at heel and l%in. at 
comb will probably suit him best. 
The gun stock must be so fashioned that the heel plate 
shall be at right angle, or nearly so, to the barrels, and 
the gun will stand with the barrels almost perpendicular. 
Some, however, prefer that the gun when stood upright 
shall be such that the sight and the center of the butt 
shall be in a plumb line. 
A thin man requires but little cast-off to his gun, 
while a stout man with broad shoulders may need a gun 
much cast off. 
The pistol-hand gun stock, known technically as half 
pistol-hand, is the common form throughout Canada and 
the United States, and is also being adopted by the 
sportsmen of Australia and South Africa. 
Among English sportsmen the use of the pistol grip 
is confined chiefly to double rifles and large bore guns, 
and it permits of a firmer grip than the straight hand 
stock, but is not so convenient for pulling the left 
trigger in quick succession to the right. With the 
straight grip the hand may slide backward, but with the 
pistol grip it is necessary to bend the trigger finger 
more to fire the second barrel rapidly. Some sportsmen, 
whether using straight or pistol-hand stocks, find it more 
convenient to pull the near trigger first and move the 
hand forward to fire a rapid second. 
There are other shapes of stocks, with which many 
sportsmen are acquainted, but to others they will be 
novel and offer certain advantages. First, there is the 
horn guard, equivalent to the scroll guard of the old- 
fashioned English rifle. This guard is supposed to allow 
a better and firmer grip of the gun to be obtained with 
the right hand. The same advantage as claimed for the 
pistol hand stock, and it moreover prevents the second 
finger of the right hand from being bruised by the back 
of the trigger guard. 
The horn guard is much used by some Continental 
sportsmen, and the German gunmakers particularly fash¬ 
ion it into an ornamental fitting for either the shotgun 
or rifle. Another Continental form is the shield guaid. 
