Tom's bore is twelve, and
I've brought some to fit his old double, and some, too, for my own gun,
though it is almost too small!"
"What gauge is yours, Harry?"
"Fourteen; which I consider the very best bore possible for general
shooting. I think the gunsmiths are running headlong now into the
opposite of their old error--when they found that fifteens and fourteens
outshot vastly the old small calibres--fifty years since no guns were
larger than eighteen, and few than twenty; they are now quite out-doing
it. I have seen late-imported guns of seven pounds, and not above
twenty-six inches long, with eleven and even ten gauge calibres! you
might as well shoot with a blunderbus at once!"
"They would tell at cock in close summer covert," answered A---.
"For a man who can't cover his bird they might," replied Harry; "but you
may rely on it they lose three times as much in force as they gain in
the space they cover; at forty yards you could not kill even a woodcock
with them once in fifty times, and a quail, or English snipe, at that
distance never!"
"What do you think the right length and weight, then, for an eleven
bore?"
"Certainly not less than nine pounds, and thirty inches; but I would
prefer ten pounds and thirty-three inches; though, except for a fowl-gun
to use in boat-shooting, such a piece would be quite too ponderous and
clumsy.
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