Book Description

Excerpt from An Illustrated Treatise on the Art of Shooting: With Extracts From the Best Authors The book we have now before us, although the work of a gunmaker, is by no means a treatise on the construction of the weapons which it is his business to manufacture, but is a manual of instructions relating to the effective handling of shot guns after they have been made. The author, over and beyond his ordinary business standing, enjoys the reputation of being an excellent "coach," whose endeavour it is, not only "to teach the young idea how to shoot," but likewise to lead men no longer young to abandon old ideas that have proved unconducive to success, and replace them by other methods more likely to attain the desired end. And one purpose of this work is that it may serve as a text-book to pupils, enabling them at their leisure to go again over the ground trodden during the process of personal teaching, and fix in their minds the principles that are sought to be inculcated. But the utility of the book is by no means restricted to those who have the advantage of personal tuition, for many who are self-taught -except in so far as they are observers of men and manners, and imitators of what they conceive to be the best practice - may yet find ample food for reflection in the hints and suggestions that are laid before them. The book consists of two parts, the first of which may be said to constitute the mainstay of the work; and in this part will be found, almost exclusively, the numerous illustrations which form its most striking feature. Instead of long verbal descriptions telling the reader what to do, - or what not to do how to carry his gun, say, for use, for comfort, or for safety - a picture is placed before his eyes, showing in action what is inculcated - the grasp of the hand, the posture of the body, and the direction of the barrel; the figures not being left to the mere imagination of the artist, but the authors ideas being converted into realities by photographic representations of men in the very act of doing what is directed, which photographs have been transferred for printing purposes by the skilful pencil of Mr. J. Temple. There are about fifty of these page-size illustrations, which show how the gun should be carried easily under the arm for a long tramp, or on the shoulder in readiness for immediate use, how to hold it when loading, where the barrel should or should not be directed when walking in line, and what shots ought to be avoided as tending to danger; how to hit birds that are crossing to right or to left, that are approaching the gun or going straight away, that are skimming low or flying high over the shooters head, or that have passed beyond him and are going away, with the variations that are required for different angles, as well as for ascending or descending shots, and hints as to when to shoot over birds and when under. The author has preferred to let the illustrations tell their own tale for the most part; and the defect, if it be one, lies on the side of extreme brevity; for the pictures in the first portion of the book are so numerous, in comparison with the quantity of text, that the printer has occasionally found himself in straits when endeavouring to place the descriptive matter in front of the corresponding engraving, and consequently, from a typographical point of view, the appearance is not so shapely as it might have been had there been more text to fill out some of the pages. The second part of the book - which consists partly of original matter and partly of quotations from our own and other pages - touches on subjects less directly connected with the manipulation of the gun in the field. These bring up the volume to about 160 pages of text, exclusive of the illustrations. They include notes on costume, instructions on gun cleaning, measuring for a gun, hammer or hammerless guns, steel and Damascus barrels, chokes and cylinders, times and velocities, sizes of sho.