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“I have always considered you to know more about the breaking and breeding of setters than any man living, and that it was entirely through you that the apex of setter breeding was reached about twenty-five years ago, and through your recommendation I obtained the eight setters in 1881 that founded my present breed.”

I am glad to be able to quote this, because my name is little known to younger shooters, although I write many, preferably unsigned, articles upon rural sports and other matters.

G. T. T.-B.

THE COMPLETE SHOT

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By far the greatest inventions in gunnery have been made by chemists. The cleverness and boldness of many wonderful inventions for loading at the breech all aimed at the well-nigh impossible. The powder was always ignited from without, and had to be either partly or quite loose in order to facilitate ignition by means of external fire. That is what beat the inventors of five centuries, who were for ever trying to find a breech-loader, a revolver, or a magazine weapon. In default of these working satisfactorily, they tried weapons with seven barrels, and others with fewer. But it was all to little purpose; the detonator had not been discovered by the Rev. A. J. Forsyth, and the chemist to the French army of Louis XV. had not then invented fulminate of mercury. Consequently a closed-up cartridge containing its own means of ignition was impossible, for although detonating substances were known years before, they were such as did not always wait to be detonated—in other words, they were not stable. They were too dangerous for use, but nevertheless the attempts made at breech-loaders, and especially at magazines, were more than equally dangerous. One weapon had eight touch-holes in eight positions in the barrel, which was eight times charged, one load and charge upon top of the next. That nearest the muzzle was fired first (if the weapon was ever fired at all), and so on, down to that nearest the breech. What prevented the first igniting the rest, and sending all off together with a burst weapon, is not known. If they did not go off all together, one would suppose the firing of several loads in succession would give to those loads in the breech the best ramming ever known. But for this ramming to excess this invention went very near to a more perfect success than any modern magazine weapon. The trouble with all the latter is what to do with the empty cartridge-case. But this old weapon had no cartridge-case. Its ignition was from the outside, and was always ready. It is true that the difference of length of movement of shot within the barrel would make some difference to the velocity of each shot, but not more than would be equalised by a very small extra dose of powder for those charges nearest the muzzle.