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When loading with a very large shot, fill up the interstices with sawdust. 
Balling and clustering of the shot arises from many causes. From the hot 
powder gases getting past the wads fusing several pellets together, from a too 
quickly igniting powder, from the coning of the barrels being too sharp, 
from the size of the shot and quantity, from the turnover of the cartridge, 
from the impact of the shot against hard wads, etc., all of which require a 
special cure. 
Leading chiefly occurs towards the breech end of the barrel, where it is 
often undetected. It is prevalent in choke bores. If the deposit. is not very 
great, tow T or cotton wound into a kncb, round the jag of the cleaning rod, and 
saturated with spirits of turpentine, will remove it; but if it is leaded consider¬ 
ably, do not use the steel wire brush, but a brass one such as recommended by 
Sir R. Payne Gallwey. 
In case of miss fires, the fault is almost certain to lie in the gun, one of the 
many causes arises from the faulty shape of the striker. The length of the part 
projecting from the gun should be one-tenth of an inch, and the end blunt. If 
the end be too pointed, miss or hang fires will frequently occur ; but the fault is 
not always with the gun ; I have known two miss fires occur in rifles—One in a 
*400—*360 double hammer cordite rifle. The fault was in the cartridge, as the 
cap was not only fully dented, but driven well into the case. 
