By EDWARD CHARLES Merits of the Three Types of Guns and the Loads that Will Do the Work NY old shotgun will break a clay pigeon but any old shotgun won't break all of them. Therefore, the man bucking what is now the hardest game in the shooting line wants to be dead sure that a missed bird is his fault, and that no improvement is possible in fit of gun or its shooting performance. With the mechanical regularity, the endurance and the absolute concentration necessary to make even a decent showing at the traps in present company, the game is difficult enough with the finest shooting and best fitting gun the trap man ever put to his shoulder. I term it the hardest of all the shooting games, merely because the ability to point a gun straight is not enough to put one into the company of the top-notchers. Long runs grow ever longer. A seventyfive per cent performance is worth nothing and yet that means fifteen birds out of twenty. Charley Spencer broke 565 birds without a miss, and from this the long runs taper down to the mediocre hundred straight. Available trapguns are divided into three general types, with a fourth coming slowly into sight across the pond. The double hammerless and the repeating shotgun, or "pump gun," practically divide the spoils between them, although the single barrel, special trapgun is coming so rapidly into favor that the European makers of the finest ones report [732] themselves unable to keep up with the demand. The trans-pond shotgun makers are experimenting with another type of double gun that may find some favor at the traps this being an under-and-over gun, with the barrels mounted one above the other instead of side by side in the ordinary double shotgun. The gun is claimed to point with the accuracy of the single barrel, yet gives the shooter the two quick shots of the double, and the simple, certain double hammerless lock mechanism. The advantages and disadvantages of the various types are such that choice is a matter largely of whether the shooter can best perform with the repeater, the double, or the special single barrel. In the case of the double we list in its favor the fact that its locks are usually highly reliable, and it is little likely to balk and tie up a squad at the wrong time which means any time. The shooter has his option of holding where he chooses, and can shoot a very long stock and still grip the gun comfortably with the left hand. The weight lies well between the two hands, and the two shots can be fired rapidly and accurately when doubles are the game. So far as the oft-repeated statement as to the greater amount of "shoot" in the repeater as compared with the cheap double, meaning superior patterns and more even ones, note that the 1911 Grand American was won with 99 ex 100 from twenty yards by a man shooting the
733 cheapest grade of a well-known double gun. Theoretically the double gun breaks its targets with the side of its patterns and its patterns besides are oval shaped, due to uneven expansion of the barrels during discharge. That this is pure theory is demonstrated by the work of William Crosby and Fred Gilbert, two of the finest shots in the United States. It is well to forget such theory when it is proved by practical experience to have no bearing on results. Choice should fall rather upon the gun that one can point the most accurately. For some reason the two barrels and their rib point far more accurately in the hands of some men than does the single tube of the pump, and with others the reverse is true. Only trial at the traps can demonstrate which class is yours. Certain it is that no man able to find his bird accurately over the double tubes should change. No arm has any advantage over the double, save in the one matter of individual idiosyncrasy of pointing contrariness the lover of the double terms it. The repeating shotgun affords a tremendous sighting line with the length of its matted receiver added to that of its barrel. Also said length has to be swung just as surely as extra barrel length in the double. The single is very easily operated. While the user of the double has to push over a top lever and drop down the barrels to open the gun, the single barrel man has merely to pull back on the action slide handle, and the gun is unlocked, opened, and the empty shell ejected. The experienced trap shot handles his pump so fast that one watching would fancy it blowing open automatically from the recoil of the shot. The repeating mechanism adds weight and to some tastes injures the balance of the repeater for trap work. Save in doubles the repeating part of the gun is of no use, and the double barrel has an undeniable advantage over the repeater when two birds at a time are thrown out of the trap. The short-armed man is probably better fitted with a double gun than with the repeater for the reason that to shoot such guns comfortably the left hand must grasp the slide handle, which is set a considerable distance ahead of the trigger. Inasmuch as stock length is more dependent upon the position of the left hand than of the right, the short-armed chap finds it necessary to shoot a short stock. This is not good medicine at the traps. Hard for Short Arms From the trigger itself to the end of the action slide handle is about eleven inches on the repeater. To where the hand grips it comfortably the distance is still more. Beyond this is a reach of barrel and magazine, making a balance pleasing to some, not at all to the liking of others. Twenty-six inches intervene between butt plate and the extreme end of the forestock in the double gun with stock of 14½ inches. The same distance in the repeater with ordinary stock length carries to the end of the slide handle nearest the action, making the actual position of the left hand still farther out a stretch for the little man. This long reach and balance appeals to many men, and are not to be taken as a disadvantage. They are pointed out merely to show the short-armed man why he finds himself stretched uncomfortably to shoot a repeating gun. The single barrel trapgun is unquestionably the finest of the saucer-breaking tools, but owing to the fact that it is a special purpose gun, good for nothing else, it appeals only to the man who can afford such fine toys and who follows the traps enough to make worth while the ownership of such a gun. It is not the weapon for the one-gun man, nor for the man who uses his.12 at both trap and the flushing birds. The single possesses the accurate pointing of the repeating single barrel, with the superior balance and the fine locks and sure action of the double hammerless. It is, in effect, merely a double hammerless gun with one barrel. It may have the same fore-end ejector, the same bolting system, and the same locks, and often does when turned out by a maker of double guns. The small amount of mechanism and the one barrel lets the maker distribute
734 OUTING his allowed 7½ or 7¾ pounds where he pleases, making a heavy breech and substantial locking mechanism far ahead of the double, yet not running out of weight bounds. It gives its user the privilege of holding the left hand where he chooses, enables him to shoot a very long stock, and keeps the weight back between the user's hands, where it belongs. Such arms are at present high priced, as the number sold is small, and the interest on the special machinery must be charged against a relatively small number. As there is nothing to the gun but a barrel, an action, the bolting mechanism, and the locks, the equipment of the double minus the extra barrel and cost of fitting it, the gun should otherwise be made in equivalent grades for less than the cost of the doubles. Choice from the three types is, therefore, to be summed up thus: The double barrel gun is without a superior in the hands of the man who can point it straight, and it is free from many objectionable points common to other types. The repeating shotgun is the gun for the man who can do his best work with a single barrel; immense value for the money, long wearing, and usually close shooting. The special single barrel is a beautiful toy for the man who can afford guns of rather high price and who follows the game enough to justify the purchase of a tool good for the one purpose shooting at single birds over the traps. At this it is a beautiful arm and one embodying virtues unobtainable from any other type. The general specifications of the good trapgun vary but little. In the double, two-trigger gun the stock should not fall below 14½ inches from front trigger to butt plates save in the case of the very short-armed man, or the one who holds far out on the barrels. Nearer 15 inches will suit the average man of around five feet nine inches. The long stock is the thing, even though the hold of the left hand be brought closer to the head of the gun. One thing is sure, the stock should be too long to swing up quickly and comfortably in the field unless you desire to make one gun serve for the two games. Stocks of repeating guns are shorter, running in trap lengths from 13½ to 13¾ or 14 inches. The stock of the single barrel special gun should be a full 14 inches if the trigger is in the "rear" position, corresponding to the rear trigger on the double gun. Drop the slope of the stock from the line of the barrels is usually from 1 3 / 8 inches to 1 5 / 8 inches at the comb, and from 2 to 2½ inches at the heel. It is well to get the higher comb if in doubt, and then have it shaved down if it proves too high by smiting the shooter in the cheek bone. At the traps accuracy demands that you do not shoot with the head erect, but that you cuddle down to your stock lie down on it, as some of them put it. The left barrel is usually the chosen barrel on the double gun, both because it's easier to pull the rear trigger and because the recoil of the left barrel is less severe in its effect than that of the right. If the right trigger is used and the rear curve of the guard bruises the second finger, then the remedies are these: Softening the Recoil The finger may be padded with one of the patent rubber "blister" finger pads, or the guard itself may be padded with a special pad made for the purpose. A single trigger may be substituted, or the guard may be bent the wrong way, giving the rear part an inward or concave curve from the finger instead of the ordinary outward slope. Often a tightening of the grip, or the substitution of very rough checking for the finer screen on the gun stops the trouble, which comes merely from allowing the gun to slip through the hand instead of carrying the hand along with it as it goes backward. A silver recoil pad should be fitted to all trapguns. Standing 200 blows of around 30 foot-pounds for perhaps three consecutive days is no small stunt. Often the silver pad comes in very nicely for bringing to the proper length the stock that proved by trial to be too short. Recollect that all stock length dimensions are taken over the silver pad; it is part of the stock when it is used. An ejector double gun is preferable
735 to one that does not eject automatically. Barrels on doubles should be 32 inches, or 34, if you are big enough to swing such a gun, and the makers know how to make a well-balanced arm within the weight limit. Weight should vary from 7½ to 8 pounds. Don't get a gun too heavy to swing; naturally the 200- pounder can handle the gun that is too heavy for the man of 150 pounds weight. Trigger pull should not run over 4 or 4½ pounds and should be clean and "sweet." The shooting performance of the trapgun is of as much importance as the type of gun itself. What you desire of the gun is that it should throw every time you pull trigger on a loaded shell such a pattern with 1¼ ounces of shot that a blue rock can find no hole in it at the distance at which you ordinarily break your birds. This does not always mean an extreme full choke, or an extremely close shooting gun, although such arms are usually the ones sought by the trap shooter. The accepted standard of measurement for the shotgun is a circle thirty inches across, at a distance of forty yards. Into this circle the full choke gun will put from seventy to eighty per cent of the entire charge. Occasionally a gun, favored with a load it likes, will shoot pattern after pattern of eighty per cent, but such arms are rare. A percentage of seventy per cent of 1¼ ounces of 7½ or 8 shot held within the thirty-inch circle at forty yards is enough to break a blue rock at this distance every shot, provided note the word the pellets are evenly spaced to cover the entire circle. A gun shooting such patterns will never grind a bird to dust, powder it, reduce it to a nearly invisible cloud of black dust, often seen at a trap shoot, unless the bird is hit at very close range. A bird ground to dust is a bird hit with far more pellets than it is entitled to in the nature of shotgun patterns. It is a sign of danger, and the user of such a weapon can well tremble in his boots if he is breaking his birds at the average breaking distance. The grinding up of a bird means that the gun is throwing bunchy patterns, too much shot in one space, and not enough in another. Just as infallibly as a gun blows birds to dust some shots, it will miss some at other shots, through the fault of the pattern alone. Seek in the trapgun patterns that are just dense enough at the range at which you break your birds to ensure hitting the bird and breaking it. The very quick shot, landing on his bird before it hardly gets away from the house, perhaps at 15 to 18 yards, is unquestionably outgunning himself by using a full choke gun. If his birds are being broken to bits at an average distance of 18 yards from the trap, which means 34 yards from the shooter, then he wants patterns proportioned to the distance. Clearly if the ordinary, even shooting, full choke gun will break its birds at 40 yards, then said full choke is wasting energy and pellets on blue rocks it hits but 34 yards out. Getting the Most Out of the Load At 30 yards, for example, the full choke gun is putting in from eighty-seven to ninety per cent of its pellets in the 30- inch circle, which means that thirty inches is practically all the load diameter. At 35 yards the gun is still good for eighty per cent of the charge in the 30- inch and the man breaking his birds from 30 to 35 yards is using an average eightyfive per cent charge on them. This is more dense in the even-shooting gun than is necessary, and it would be far better to utilize the spare shot in a wider circle out of charity for the times when the gun is not pointed exactly right. At close range No. 8 shot is just as effective as 7½, and there are 500 pellets to the load against 430 for 7½. Therefore, Mr. Snapshot, who is lightning on the trigger, would do well to use a gun patterning evenly about sixty per cent at 40 yards, and then to shoot No. 8 shot. The rare bird that got through because of sparseness of pattern would be more than balanced by the ones that a closer shooting gun would miss. The ordinary amateur, who is not so speedy in picking up his birds, needs the 70 per cent shooting gun, but the seventy per cent is not the only criterion. The
736 OUTING gun must first shoot where it points. It is well enough to have a gun that shoots a bit high, but never one that undershoots, or that sticks in its charge to the left or right. Then that gun should be tried with various combinations of powder and casings, always using the 7½ shot and 1¼ ounce load, until one is found that gives the most even patterns on the paper, and the most even shooting for shot after shot. The actual percentage is the last thing to worry about. Any gun that makes even sixty-five per cent patterns is close shooting enough for the average amateur, and it is ahead of the ultraclose shooting affair that is not particular about where it puts its percentage of shot. Most of the talk about slow and fast loads may be ignored. The lighter powder loads usually give better patterns, and pattern is everything in trap-shooting. The tyro will do well to stick to 3 or 3 1 / 8 drams of the powder reliably recommended for use at the traps. Better the lessened recoil, and the long string of even patterns, than the theoretical few inches less lead necessary on quartering birds, with the attendant drawbacks of perhaps patchy patterns and greater recoil.