Should different guns be employed, the shooter should have all the locks made, if possible, to require exactly the same pull to bring them to action; there is nothing deceives or disconcerts him more than shooting one day with a stiff, and the next with an easy going lock; the transition from that which goes off with a slight, to that where a hard touch is necessary, will often cause the most expert to miss his bird.
If a rival shooter (some stranger) races to get before you, push him hard for a long time, always letting him have rather the advantage, and then give him the double without his seeing you. Having done this, go quietly round (supposing you have been beating up wind); and, on reaching the place where you began, work closely and steadily the whole of the ground or covert that you have both been racing over, and you will be sure to kill more game than him, who is beating and shooting in haste, through fear of your getting up to him; and (if the wind should rise) driving the dispersed, and consequently closest lying birds to your beat, as fast as he finds them.
Beware of the muzzle of the gun being kept hanging downwards; when so carried, the shot is apt to force its way from the powder, especially in clean barrels; if it happens that a space of sixteen or eighteen inches is thus obtained, and the gun fired with its point below the horizon, it is ten to one but the barrel bursts. There are other perilous consequences besides those that generally accompany the disruption of a barrel, for the men, horses, and dogs, are in perpetual danger of being shot when a gun is carried in the before-mentioned pendent manner.
When a gun begins to exhibit symptoms of having done its work, the sooner a man discards it the better. An injured barrel or enfeebled lock may prove fatal to the owner or his associates. Accidents every day occur, and very lamentable consequences proceed, from a culpable neglect in retaining arms which should be declared unserviceable and disused.
I had once a favourite gun, which from constant wear and tear exhibited unequivocal weakness in the locks, and which I had been earnestly recommended by a veteran sportsman to condemn. On a cold and rainy day, I was with my friend O’M——, shooting woodcocks in the heath, and having sprung several, which from the severity of the weather were wild as hawks, we marked them into a ravine, and determined to tie up the dogs and endeavour to steal upon them. To keep my gun dry I placed it under the skirt of my jacket, with the muzzle pointing downwards. My companion and our attendant were busy coupling the dogs, when the gun exploded, and the charge passing between O’M——’s bosom and the back of a dog he was in the act of securing, buried itself at the foot of the keeper, covering him with mud and gravel. From the close manner in which we were all grouped, how the shot could have entered the ground without killing men or dogs, or both, was miraculous. I was desperately frightened, and from that moment forswore for ever, the use of weakened locks and attenuated barrels.