large by repeated firing, as it will weaken the force of the gun, and damage the lock. Directions for Cleaning Guns. 1. Place the breech ends of the barrels about three inches deep in a bucket with cold water; then, after wetting the sponge, cloth, or tow, introduce the rod into the barrels, and work it well: then apply the wire brush attached to the cleaning-rod with some clean hot water, which will take out all the lead in the operation. This should be invariably attended to, as it is well known washing only will not remove the lead. 2. Wipe the rod and outside of the barrels dry, and set the latter upright, muzzle downwards, for two minutes to drain, after which rub them out perfectly dry. 3. Wipe the barrels out clean, then pass an oiled rag down the inside, and rub over the outside: leave them a little oily, which will prevent rust. The use of cloth is preferred, as not subjecting gentlemen to the serious accidents that have happened from leaving tow in the chamber. Brass, being in its nature softer than iron, allows of the brush being used without the possibility of injury to the barrels. "So much for" Lancaster-and all very right; except that I prefer a little fine sand or brickdust to the wire brush. "A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still." LOADING. As I before observed, you are obliged, in your own defence, to load a detonater lighter than a flint-gun; and as it goes quicker, (though not stronger, as the gunmakers would wish to make you believe,) and for other reasons, before given, you may use a fourth less powder than with a flint-gun. [My own plan, how ever, is generally to reduce the charge of shot to an oz. and, and shoot with equal measures of powder and shot.] Many sportsmen feel quite positive that a detonater shoots much stronger than a flint. This, I have no doubt, is because it does not allow them time to flinch, and therefore they fire the body of the charge so much more accurately with a detonater, that they kill cleaner and at greater distances. The safest way to load a detonater, is to put the caps on last, taking care to leave down the cocks; or the powder, unless of large grain, would, on ramming the wadding, be forced through the hole in the nipple. But let me observe en passant, that I think the use of large-grained powder objectionable in coppercap guns, because you are never sure that it will fill up a dirty chamber, so as to arrive near the hole of the nipple. If you put away your gun loaded, always take off the caps, not only for safety, but because the locks must either be left straining at half cock, or, if let down and suffered to remain all night, the odds are, that the powder would be jammed into a sort of damp paste, and both barrels would miss fire. But if you take fresh caps, and prick both the vent-holes and the nipple-holes, your gun will generally fire with its usual rapidity. Detonating powder I have found very liable to miss fire after being long in contact with any salt or damp; such as a strong pressure on the elastic fluid of gunpowder; being all night in a punt in the sea air; the spray that comes over a boat in sailing, &c. In a word, although detonating powder may be put in water and then fired off, yet it frequently misses fire after being long in the damp, and particularly when shooting on salt water. One of the recipes for making detonating powder is:— One ounce of oxymuriate of potash, One-eighth of an ounce of superfine charcoal, Mixed with gum-arabic water, and then dried. It should be mixed up in wood, for fear of accident. Another, and, I am told, a far better proportion, is : Five of oxymuriate, Two of sulphur, and One of charcoal. I merely give the recipe, in case a sportsman should be in a place where he cannot buy the composition; as I presume that no one in his senses would run the risk of being blown up, in order to make, perhaps indifferently, what he could so cheaply purchase in perfection. The foregoing directions are, I trust, sufficient; and I have confined them to the most simple, and, therefore, as yet, the best detonating system: which, in the trifling matter of caps, primers, &c., may be suited to the shooter's fancy. SHOOTING, Difference in, between a Flint and a Detonater. As a detonater goes so very much quicker than a flint, it becomes necessary, in firing one, to avoid shooting too forward; and I should, therefore, revert to my former hints for young men learning to shoot, and say, observe precisely all that I before said under the head of shooting; but, if you have a detonater, make only half the allowance; that is, where you would fire six inches before a bird with a flint, fire only three inches with a detonater; and so on. If a sportsman has been all his life an indifferent shot, which he may be, either through never having acquired the knack of firing sufficiently forward; flinching as he pulls the trigger; dropping his hand before the gun is fairly discharged; or many other such circumstances;-I most strongly advise him not to lose a moment in getting a detonater; because I have known many instances, where a man had been a very bad shot all his life, through defects which the use of a detonater might so effectually remedy, that by taking up one he might, almost immediately, become a tolerable, if not a very good shot. For one, however, who has always shot well with a flint, it becomes somewhat difficult to give advice. On first taking up the detonater, he will, by habit, fire well forward at all his game, and, very probably, have the mortification to miss such shots as he was before in the habit of killing. (Of this I was an eye-witness when out with one of the most certain shots in England.) He will soon, however, (to use a sailor's expression,) "know the trim" of his gun; and taking all things into consideration, most probably shoot still more accurately with a detonater than he had been used to do with a flint, by reason of its very great readiness in obeying the pull of the trigger, before the eye or hand has time to vary; its equal rapidity in foul or damp weather; and having scarcely any flash from the lock of the first barrel to intercept the sight of the second. He must, however, compound for a greater recoil to the shoulder. We may, therefore, on the whole, taking all things into consideration, say, that at first a detonater may make a good shot an indifferent shot, and both first and last an indifferent shot a good shot; and therefore we may be rather inclined to give the balance in its favour. But, to coincide with all the panegyrics that are written, by keen young sportsmen, who happen, perhaps, to have been shooting extremely well, and despatch their bulletins on the spur of the moment, would be to overrate the detonater, and to underrate the flint, and therefore not giving a fair and disinterested opinion. Why it becomes a question whether a good shot ought to fly to a detonater or not, is this:-after he has been using one for a season, or even a few weeks' shooting, he will, on taking up his flint-gun again, find that it goes comparatively so slow, after the other, that it will appear to hang fire; and, very probably, so puzzle and disconcert him, that perhaps his best and favourite gun is either packed up for the pawnbroker, or stripped of its flint-appendages, and metamorphosed into a detonater. And the whole armoury, if he has many guns, is considered as mere lumber, unless altered, or exchanged for guns on the detonating system. He therefore takes to fulminating powder like a wife, "for better for worse;" and this is one of the chief reasons why the percussion plan has so rapidly superseded the flint. Did both go equally quick, I am inclined to think the flint would have held the majority. If a sportsman, who has no money to throw away, has been accommodated with the loan of a detonater, the only way for him to back out of it, is to modulate as it were into his flint-gun again, by using the slowest old musket he can lay hands on, and then taking, after that, his best flint-gun. Can you shoot well with a flint-gun? Yes! Yes! Then "leave well enough alone!" Can you? No! Then, by all means, go and get a detonater. I have now, I hope and trust, fairly and disinterestedly stated all that is necessary, both for and against the detonating system, which, at no small expense, I have tried by every kind of experiment, in order to be able to give my opinion to the public independent, instead of with the assistance, of gunmakers. But, before I close the subject, let me not appear inconsistent: I still maintain that the detonater has not the power of the flint-gun; and yet I admit that, by a different mode of boring, the percussion-guns are now wonderfully improved: insomuch as to be almost equal in strength to the flint-guns. Nay, I will say even more:-give them an increased weight of metal, which to many is a trouble to carry; retard the charge, and thus increase the recoil; and then I admit, with the very great improvement that has lately been made in barrels, they will no doubt even beat those flint-guns which were manufactured a few years ago; but, without all this, they would be found as inferior as ever to flint-guns. Here ends all that is necessary with regard to guns; and I trust I have not given one page too much for the instruction of young sportsmen who wish properly to understand the subject. But, to those who are content with a superficial knowledge, I admit that I have gone through what would afford as little amusement as Blackstone's Commentaries or the Statutes at large; and, (if they have the patience to study it,) they will not be more happy to finish reading than I am to finish writing on the subject. I am aware that many who write for fancy, and merely to please, but not to instruct, have sarcas |