DIRECTIONS FOR TRYING BARRELS.

A man may be taken in with a horse or a dog, but never with a gun, after being simply told how to try it.

Having taken out the breeching, and ascertained that the barrel is free from flaws, or unsound places, let him fire about a dozen or twenty shots at a quire of the thickest brown paper, by which he will know, to a certainty, both the strength and closeness with which the shot is driven; and he should remember, that the strongest and most regular shooting-gun is the best, provided it does not throw the shot so thin as for a bird to escape between them.

The same quire of paper might do for all, if one fresh sheet is put in front of, and another behind it, every time the gun is fired.

[Another, somewhat inferior, though a quicker and cheaper way of trying barrels is, to borrow an iron plate and whitewash it every shot. By doing this you save the expense of, and time required for nailing up paper, and can form a tolerable idea of the strength, by observing the impression of the lead; as the stronger the gun shoots, the flatter the pellets are beat, and the larger, of course, therefore will the dark spots appear on the white surface.]

Before concluding on the examination of barrels, it may be proper to observe that a barrel may be pretty good and perfectly safe, and yet not able to bear the scientific inspection of a firstrate maker or judge: that is, to hold the barrel up to the window, and gradually raise it till the shade, from above the window, runs along its surface; by which inspection you will easily discover the most trifling want of finish. For instance, examine a barrel of Mr. Lancaster in this manner, and the shade will run along it like the even surface on the flow of smooth water. But take a barrel of an inferior finisher, and you will perceive the iron all in bumps, as if that flow of water was agitated by wind. To the many, however, who fancy themselves good judges of a gun, the one might appear as perfect as the other; and so indeed

it would, to every person who examined it in the ordinary way. To inspect the inside of a barrel, raise it in like manner, and if the stream of shade, as it were, flows true and steady, the boring may be considered straight, and free from any palpable defect.

THE STOCK,

To be neat in appearance, should be cut away, as close as strength and safety will admit of, and well tapered off at the locks. The butt may be rather full. A cheek-piece, however, is not only as frightful as its usual companion, the scroll-guard, but is sometimes apt to give the very blow it is intended to save. If, however, a sportsman prefers having something to steady his hand, Lancaster will show him a plan of mine for a movable pistol-gripe, that can be put to any stock, and taken off at pleasure. This proves to answer well; but I dislike all the others, both for use and appearance.

The stocks of single guns are generally tipped, or capped with horn; but some makers have discarded this, through fear of its being split by the recoil, and either leave a clumsy continuation of the wood, or tip the stock with a gingerbread-looking piece of silver; whereas, if they would only leave a space about the thickness of a shilling between the end of the rib and the horn, the recoil, however great, could have no influence on that part.

The length, bend, and casting off a stock, must of course be fitted to the shooter, who should have his measure for them as carefully entered on a gunmaker's books, as that for a suit of clothes on those of his tailor. He has then only to direct, that his guns may be well balanced; to do which, the maker will put lead, in proportion to their weight; so that, on holding each of them flat on the left hand, with the end of the lock opposite the little finger, he will find a sufficient equilibrium to make the gun rest perfectly steady on the hand.

I have proved that this degree of balance answers best, as a butt too much loaded is apt to hang on the right hand in bringing it up, and vice versâ, on the left, which is top-heavy.

N. B. The lower down the butt the lead is let in, the steadier

the gun will keep to the shoulder; as it then acts like ballast to a rolling vessel.

All stocks should have a good fall in the handle, and not be, as some are, nearly horizontal in that part. This has nothing to do with the general bend or mounting of the stock, but it is merely to keep the hand to the natural position, instead of having, as it were, the handle wrenched from the fingers, while grasping it.

A stock that is deep, and comes out well at the toe, or bottom of the heel-plate, is the most steady when pitched on the object. For those who take a pride in the appearance of their stocks, and select handsome pieces of wood, I know of nothing better to keep them polished, than a little linseed oil, and plenty of what is vulgarly called elbow-grease.

The new and easy recipe for polishing gun-stocks is to varnish them precisely like the panels of a carriage. Nothing does better.

If a stock, which in other respects suits you, is, in a trifling degree, too straight or too much bent, the maker could rectify it by means of boiling it in hot water.

BREECHING.

A gun breeching, till of late years, was simply a plug, screwed into the end of the barrel, so as to reach to the touchhole.

The first improvement was to bore a hole down the centre of this plug, and bring the touchhole to it in a right angle, thereby having the communication directly through both the male and female screws. How far this may be safe, I leave to the more experienced to judge; but it certainly shoots so well, that I never could find any solid breeching to beat it, until Mr. Joseph Manton brought out his, which, like the rest of his work, has been abused and imitated by most of his filing fraternity!

To treat on the various kinds of solid breechings, that have been made since the original invention of Mr. Nock, would be wasting time, and consuming a volume, when we can at once warrant that there are none superior to the one above mentioned.

For example, a breeching on Mr. Manton's construction places the touchhole literally to the chamber, and thereby not only cuts off all superfluous angles, which impede quick firing, and collect dirt, but the narrowness of this chamber admits of the outside metal being filed away, with the most perfect safety, and lets in the lock so far, that the pan is brought close to the charge of powder, by which means the discharge of the gun becomes instantaneous. All this, however, may be more clearly demonstrated by a reference to the sections of the different gun breechings, of which there are now published so many engravings, and in comparing which the other decided advantages of this improvement are fully manifested.

Should it be suggested, that the narrowness of this tube renders it difficult to be cleaned, let it be remembered, that the rod, when it goes to the bottom of the breech, forces the air through the centre tube with such violence, that neither oil nor damp can be left behind; and, in the event of any dirt falling in, there is a probe, which you screw on the ramrod: and this little appendage is, or should be, carried in your pocket.

It may be well, however, to observe, that many of the gunmakers, who now adopt this breeching, commit a sad fault, by making the centre tube too small: they are led into this error by knowing that the narrower the tube, the stronger the gun will fire, and are satisfied with the result of a few shots. But were they to take their guns out for a whole day's work, they would find, that, by thus attempting to improve on a ne plus ultra, they had rendered their breechings liable to repeated flashes in the pan, as well as more difficult to see through (for ascertaining that all is clean and safe), when held to the light.

TRIGGER.

Let the triggers of all your guns be made to go nearly alike; for, if one requires too hard a pull, it is a sad check to shooting; and, if it goes too easy, you are liable to the accident of firing the gun before it is fairly brought to the shoulder. Any good

lock-finisher will rectify these extremes, by filing, more or less, the part where the scear catches the tumbler. The most accurate way to regulate the pull of a trigger, as well as that of a cock, is by a small stilliard, which will draw out and regulate those of twenty guns to the same focus.

Thousands of even good shots have either condemned a gun, or been out of conceit with their own shooting, from the mere circumstance of their triggers not being regulated to the same pull, and consequently the body of their charge going behind, or under, the object, when they are using a trigger that goes a little harder than the one to which they have been accustomed. Wear and tear alone will cause this impediment. The pull of triggers is much more than people would imagine, and many a bet might I have won on this subject. Will all my readers believe that four pounds is about the average pull for Lancaster's and Long's best double guns? The right-hand trigger, being farther off, should pull rather under four pounds, and the left trigger, being nearer at hand, should pull a little over four pounds.

In cleaning locks, the best places to put a little oil are,

ist. (For a flint-gun.) In front of the pan, immediately under the neck of the hammer, from whence the oil will find its way through to the wheel and spring.

2d. (For ALL GUNS.) On the pivot-nail, or centre of the tumbler, on which the whole of the works move:

3d. On the lock-plate, under the works, where a feather may be inserted:

4th. Where the scear catches the tumbler.

TO TAKE A LOCK TO PIECES.

In the event of breaking or weakening a spring, and therefore having to replace it with an extra one; or, in case the works of a lock should have become damaged by rust and neglect, every sportsman should be provided with a little spring-cramp, which may be carried with his gun-case, and with which he may himself take his locks to pieces, with as much safety as the first