Sept. 22, 1906.! 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
45i 
SPORTSMEN WITH BEATER. 
DUCK PUNT AND GINGAL. 
as he walked on the banks of his own majestic 
river, brandishing it in the early sun, I felt that 
I could see McGregor standing on his native 
heath again. 
If the gun in which I take such pride, and 
which I expected would excite the admiration 
of my Chinese friend, failed to awaken any such 
emotions, the powder I had given him seemed 
to arrest his attention. The powder he had been 
accustomed to use was of home manufacture. 
He had been in the habit of mixing three catties 
of ground charcoal, three catties of saltpetre, 
ten of sulphur, and after putting it all in a pan 
and pouring over it a jar of Kaoliang spirits, 
the pan would be placed over a low charcoal 
fire and the mixture well stirred with a stick until it 
became of the consistency of paste; it would then 
be laid out on paper in the sun to dry. Such 
are the ingredients and such the proportions 
employed by the Chinese for making gunpowder 
long before it was known to the people of the 
West. The quality, generally, is not good, but 
this can be materially improved by the quality 
of the ingredients, and when fine powder is de¬ 
sired rattan charcoal is used. I was shown a 
sample of some of the powder manufactured by 
my newly made acquaintance, and it was black 
and extremely dirty, seeming to make it neces¬ 
sary to cleanse the gun every time after firing 
it, but I was told that a Chinese sportsman did 
not wash out his gun, as a rule, until the shoot¬ 
ing season was over, and sometimes not at all 
When we had arrived at the “shooting pre¬ 
serves,” I broke my gun at the breech and 
“slipped in” the cartridges and remarked to my 
companion, for I could not help so regarding 
him, that I was ready, and it was then I had the 
opportunity of seeing him load his gun. He 
poured into the palm of his hand about the 
proper charge of powder, but stopped to ex¬ 
amine it and earnestly inquired why it was of 
a creamy color. Evidently he had never seen 
any Sclmltze powder, and it was as evident from 
his countenance that he did not care to pour 
that powder into his gun without knowing more 
about it. I assured him that there was no 
danger, that there was not a “foreign devil” 
anywhere about the powder, and that it was as 
harmless as black powder. After being thus 
assured, he poured the powder into his gun, 
drew out his long iron ramrod and began to 
ram it very hard. When I explained to him that 
that grade of powder did not shoot so well when 
packed hard into a gun barrel or cartridge, he 
showed me how a Chinaman always loaded his 
gun when using black powder. The modus 
operandi of loading is to pour the powder into 
the barrel of the gun and ram it until it is so com¬ 
pactly packed that it will not run out when the 
position of the gun is reversed; there is no wad 
of any kind placed on the powder, but the shot 
are poured on it, and often no wad is placed on 
the shot, the muzzle of the gun being held up¬ 
ward to prevent them from running out. 
It is thus that a Chinese sportsman loads his gun. 
and, with such a load and such a gun as described, 
will as often return as otherwise with a bag as 
full as the western sportsman with his modern 
breechloader and ejector cartridges. 
As we proceeded there was a deference in the 
'manner of my new companion, which plainly 
meant for me to avail myself of the first chance 
for a shot, for he walked in the rear and pointed 
out the directions for me to take. It was not 
long ere my dog found a large cock pheasant, 
and, as he winged his flight inside of a circle of 
thirty yards, I felt confident of bagging the 
beautiful bird. But after firing at him with both 
barrels, he continued his flight as unconcerned 
as if I was firing a salute, for after flying a few 
hundred yards he stopped apparently to finish 
his morning feeding. Anxious to redeem myself, 
I followed quickly and missed again under cir¬ 
cumstances more favorable than were at first 
offered. From the look of my Chinese com¬ 
panion, I concluded that he would not have given 
a copper cash for a foreign built gun, and that 
he felt no apprehension of me as a sporting 
rival. I wished to account for the unskilful 
shooting he had witnessed by saying that my 
deep had not been good the previous night; but 
I made no impression in that direction, and he 
suggested that we should take a different route, 
but with the same objective point for meeting. 
He evidently wanted me to have the first chance 
in the sport; but he doubtless had the opinion 
that if any game was bagged he would have to 
shoot it, and the opinion appeared to be well 
founded, for soon after he left me a deer got 
up and trotted off about twenty-five yards in 
front of me and it I missed also. Later during 
the day. however, my eye was quicker and my 
aim steadier, and when I returned to the house¬ 
boat. I bagged one deer and several pheasants. 
My friend was waiting for me, but said that he 
had not fired off his gun at all. 1 think the bag 
I could show partially restored me in his regard 
as a moderately good sportsman. I rather sus¬ 
pect. that when he touches the end of his match 
rope to the Schultze’s powder in the pan of his 
matchlock, the ignition will not be so quick as 
black powder, and it may be that he will ex¬ 
perience a different sensation in the recoil of 
his gun, if he rams hard the Schultze’s powder. 
The dress of a Chinese sportsman is as primi¬ 
tive as his gun. Usually a pair of straw sandals 
and the poorest of clothes are all that are .worn. 
I could not see that the sandals were any pro- 
MATC'HLOCK, POWDER HORN AND SHOT BAG. 
