Dec. 12, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
937 
Small-Bore Guns. 
Budleigh Salterton, Devonshire, England, 
Dec. 1 .—Editor Forest and Stream: In your 
paper of Oct. 3 a correspondent asks for ad¬ 
vice about loading 16 and 20-bore guns for 
wildfowl shooting. I have had no experience 
with the latter size, but have shot for many 
years with 16-bores. Before breechloading 
came into general use I had a muzzleloader 
of that gauge and killed quantities of game with 
it, chiefly quail, pigeons, sandgrouse, francolins 
and duck. It had 30-inch Damascus barrels and 
weighed 6)4 pounds. I have never owned a 
gun which gave me greater pleasure. The load 
I almost invariably used was 1 ounce of shot 
be put on the powder, then a felt Y% of an inch 
thick, then a thin card and the same over the 
shot. A card above as well as below the felt 
wad helps to make the pattern even in distribu¬ 
tion. There ought to be quite 14 inch of the 
shell left for turning over. With less than 
this the force of smokeless powder is not fully 
developed. 
Small shot causes more strain on the breech 
and more recoil than equal weights of large. 
Therefore, when using, say No. 9 for snipe, the 
load should be not more than 7/$ ounce. For 
woodcock, where most of the shots are at short 
range, the same quantity of No. 8 could be put 
in or even )4 ounce with 2^4 drams measure 
of powder. For duck, I think, nothing smaller 
A 16-bore of this kind when loaded with 1 
ounce of English No. 6 shot, containing 270 
pellets, makes a pattern of about 120 on a 30 
inch target at forty yards. If a barrel be “half 
choked’’ the pattern will be fully 160; with 1 
ounce of No. 5 about 140, and with i T /g ounce 
of No. 4, 115. 
Doubtless some very first class marksmen do 
fine work with highly choked 20-bores, but 1 
ounce of shot is not too much for really good 
average shots. Within the last few years the 
tendency in England has been to diminish the 
loads of 12-bores to 1 1-16 ounce or even 1 
ounce of No. 6. They may act well for driven 
game when nearly all the shots are within thirty 
yards, but 12-bores are not necessary for such 
WOODS PICTURES. 
From Photographs made in New Brunswick by Townsend Lawrence. 
with 2Y drams of No. 2 black powder, which 
gives the same muzzle velocity as 2)4 drams of 
the No. 4 grain made for breechloaders. Occas¬ 
ionally, for ducks, I increased the charge to 2)4 
drams of No. 2. 
For a No. 16 breechloader the best charge is 
1 ounce of shot of ordinary size and 2)4 drams 
of No. 4 black powder or its equivalent in 
smokeless. As the latter causes less recoil than 
the former, a 16-bore can now be used with 
perfect comfort when only 6-pound weight. 
Thirty-inch barrels give less recoil than those 
which are shorter, and those who are very sensi¬ 
tive to this might have the weight of the gun 
increased to 6% pounds, but certainly not more, 
for the chief advantage of the small-bores is 
their light weight. Even a powerful man can 
aim more quickly with a light than with a heavy 
1 gun, especially after a long tramp through the 
1 bush. 
When loading, a grease-proof tight wad should 
than Tatham Brothers’ No. 5 (218 in an ounce) 
should be used. With the larger sizes, trials 
should be made in order to find which makes 
the best pattern, as guns differ considerably. 
With my own guns, whether 12 or 16-bore, I 
have always made the best bags of ducks with 
No. 4 (about 175 pellets in an ounce) and with 
that size I put in i 1 /^ ounces measure, struck 
level, for a 16-bore and iJ 4 ounce for a 12. This 
does not cause any more recoil than the usual 
smaller loads of English No. 6 shot, and the 
exact weight of the pellets gives sufficient pene¬ 
tration. I have frequently noticed in successive 
years’ shooting that while wounded ducks will 
often escape by diving when struck with No. 
6 or 5 shot, they hardly ever do so if dropped 
with No. 4. The large pellets seem to paralyze 
them. A wide killing circle is of so much ad¬ 
vantage, even to very good shots, that I would 
always advocate one barrel of a gun being bored 
as what is here called an “improved cylinder.” 
small charges. Sixteen-bores, weighing from 
5)4 pounds to 6 pounds, are coming into fashion, 
and a prominent London maker lately stated 
that over seventy per cent, of the orders he has 
received this year for new guns were for that 
gauge. 
It is generally stated in books on gunnery that 
small-bores do not carry the larger sizes of shot 
well. This is not necessarily the case. Nearly 
thirty years ago I had two 16-bores made in 
Birmingham, both of which carried No. 4 shot 
with close and regular patterns at forty yards, 
and I have yet to see a 12-bore throw buckshot 
(nine pellets in a load) so well. 
Another very prevalent belief among sports¬ 
men is that “with equal loads of shot small-bores 
have narrower killing circles than large. About 
twelve years ago the proprietors of the leading 
English sporting paper carried out a series of 
trials between guns of 20, 16 and 12-gauge, most 
of the last mentioned being of unusually light 
