Shotgun

“ A number had revolvers, but only one man had a shotgun and shells.
"I was going on my vacation this afternoon straight from the office," he explained, "and have all my vacation tackle."
"Good man!" Arthur exclaimed. "You'll go after the heavy game."
"With a shotgun?" the sportsman asked, aghast.
"If you get close to them a shotgun will do as well as anything, and we can't waste a shell on every bird or rabbit. Those shells of yours are precious. You other fellows will have to turn fishermen for a while. Your pistols are no good for hunting." ”

“ Holmes. No doubt you are right. Wonderful! Wonderful! Do you carry the names of all the gun makers in the world in your memory?”
Holmes dismissed the subject with a wave.
“No doubt it is an American shotgun,” White Mason continued. “I seem to have read that a sawed-off shotgun is a weapon used in some parts of America. Apart from the name upon the barrel, the idea had occurred to me. There is some evidence then, that this man who entered the house and killed its master was an American.” ”

“ The correct principle (the one with which I won the Rifle Running-Deer World’s Championship at the Olympic Games in 1908) is to treat the rifle or pistol exactly as if it were a shotgun.
Assuming you are not familiar with shotgun shooting, get a man who is a good shot with the shotgun to coach you, when practising with the pistol at moving objects.
If you are a shotgun man you do not need to be told what follows.
At a stationary target, however rapidly you are shooting, you try to hit that object. ”

“ More than twice the size of the service rifle .30 calibre bullet, more than three times as heavy, and with a tendency to flatten out and hit still harder, the single ball for the shotgun, while not high in accuracy, is capable of knocking a man flat on his back if it hits him fairly. Five such huge pills, slung rapidly into an opposing aircraft, at a range of one hundred yards or less, would be like throwing five half-bricks into the machine with the velocity a half-brick never attained in this world. ”

“ Now about the gun. If you are in a large game country it is quite necessary that you carry a good rifle. I like the Winchester and not of too large a caliber, but if there is no large game in the locality then I think one should have a Stevens pistol, ten-inch barrel, or a Stevens Pocket Shotgun, 15-inch barrel, and in either case have a good holster to carry it in. As for myself I prefer a Pocket Shotgun. It might be well to have a large shotgun in camp. You will also want your belt axe or hatchet and a good heavy sharp axe at the camp. ”

“ A man would be mad to let a shotgun stand between him and a girl like this!
Trumbull looked at the gun. It pointed toward his stomach, and he experienced an inward shudder at the thought of what would happen if the fingers of Orla Wilkins pressed a little harder against the triggers; or just one of the triggers. Trumbull would not live to know anything about the second barrel.
He began to get extremely angry and stubborn. No half-baked reflection on the human race was going to drive him away from the girl he wanted to marry without a fight! But how could a dead man fight? ”

“ It is this want of knowledge of shotgun shooting which makes men shoot a pistol as if it were a rifle being used at a stationary target.
These men only understand lying down with a rifle, and poking about with the sights to find the target after they have put the rifle to their shoulder. Some have a lot of incantations first; they aim at the sky, bring the rifle down slowly, and then make a bull’s-eye on the wrong target as they naturally cannot know which is theirs of a string of targets, if they only fish about looking through a pin hole for it ”

“ It adds to the manly aspect of a person with a tin pail if he also carries a gun. It was possible I might start up a partridge; though how I was to hit him, if he started up instead of standing still, puzzled me. Many people use a shotgun for partridges. I prefer the rifle: it makes a clean job of death, and does not prematurely stuff the bird with globules of lead. ”

“ Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of the triggers. It was clear that this had been fired at close range and that he had received the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost to pieces. The triggers had been wired together, so as to make the simultaneous discharge more destructive. ”

“ It is as well to get a good shot to watch you shooting occasionally and to point out to you undesirable tricks or habits you may be getting into, without noticing it.
Some men, when shotgun shooting, gradually get into the habit of carrying the muzzle too low so that they sweep others as they walk. This is the result of shooting much alone, and so getting out of the habit of noticing when they are swinging their guns across others. ”

“ The three-barrelled gun, combining a double shotgun and a rifle, is an excellent weapon, and it is particularly valuable for the collector of natural-history specimens. A new gun has just come on the market which may prove valuable in South America where there is such a variety of game, a four-barrel gun, weighing only eight and one fourth pounds. It has two shotgun barrels, one 30 to 44 calibre rifle and the rib separating the shotgun barrels is bored for a 22-calibre rifle cartridge. The latter is particularly adapted for the large food birds, which a heavy riflebullet might tear. ”

“ The purchaser of a shotgun is usually aware of the fact that beyond a certain limit, varying with guns by different makers, he is paying for finish pure and simple—not for practical shooting efficiency in the weapon. ”

“ The head shot at a few yards off is the place to shoot a cat or dog with the shotgun but do not attempt to shoot them with a pistol unless you are a good shot, able to shoot into the ace of hearts at five yards’ distance, aim at the top of the head, or you may break the jaw instead of killing the animal. ”

“ A man who is a crack shot with the gun, and who unfortunately is also a crack shot with the rifle in its restricted conventional sense, at slow deliberate aim, can perhaps be prepared for a duel by impressing on him to forget all he knows about rifle-shooting, and to imagine he is using a shotgun, but the moment he sees the back sight of his pistol in the actual duel, he will try to use it for deliberate aim and miss. ”

“ During the summer months in the North Woods you will not need a rifle. Partridges, spruce hens, ptarmigan, rabbits, ducks, and geese are usually abundant enough to fill the provision list. For them, of course, a shotgun is the thing; but since such a weapon weighs many pounds, and its ammunition many more, I have come gradually to depend entirely on a pistol. ”

“ Snap and wing shooting is the last word in shotgun handling, requiring quickness in throwing the gun, as well as a trained eye to calculate the distance from and the speed of the flying target. To acquire confidence in using the gun, begin by shooting at a fixed mark. A good target may be made by obtaining a dozen, or two, sheets of stout wrapping paper and painting a 4-in. circle in the center of each sheet. Tack it up on a board fence or on a board hung on a tree, measure off 60 ft., and try a shot. ”

“ Then there was an animated dispute among the above mentioned good citizens as to who had fired the fatal shot. One claimed to have done the work with his shotgun. Another said that such small ammunition at long range could not kill such a man, but that it was his rifle shot in the neck that did it. A third said that he had dispatched the deceased with three body shots from his sixshooter, and so on. ”

“ Incidentally the wart-hog had given him a good lively time, charging again and again. The weapon has not nearly the shock power of even our.38 service—a cartridge classified as too light for serious business.
One afternoon I gave my shotgun to one of the porters to carry afield, remarking facetiously to all and sundry that he looked like a gunbearer. After twenty minutes we ran across a rhinoceros. I spent some time trying to manoeuvre into position for a photograph of the beast. ”

“ Nothing shot out of a military rifle—outside of the rifle grenade—gives the tremendous shock and blow of the big .70 calibre, five hundred grain, round lead bullet that is used in the 12-gage shotgun. ”

“ Rapid firing is not always an advantage, of course, but when after ducks, the third shot is often wanted in the interval that is required to load the double-barreled gun.
The Shells are Started About One-Quarter Inch in the Regular Way Before the Ejector Kicks Them Out
The automatic, or self-loading, shotgun is the logical development of the repeater, and while its mechanism is necessarily more complicated, it has some merits peculiarly its own. ”

“ To hit them with a pistol with a bullet when thrown in the air is extremely difficult, and can only be safely tried when shooting out to sea, or against a high cliff.
Single barrel pistols of 28 shotgun bore, 10-inch barrels are made to shoot shot, and these are very good for such shooting and train timing and swing in snap shooting.
At eighty live pigeons at twelve yards’ rise I have got more than half I shot at. One has to be quick, as the pigeon is so soon out of range. ”

“ A rifle ain't as good fur that sort o' game as a shotgun; suppose you step over an' ax Hanson to loan you his'n?”
“I jest 'lowed I'd shine this un up a bit bein' as it's Sunday an' I hate to be idle,” he answered, evasively, as he seated himself at the wide fireplace with a pan of grease and a piece of cloth and rubbed his gun barrel until it fairly shone in the firelight. ”

“ A boy might lose his pocketknife (I know of a youngster who lost a wheelbarrow and never found it again) , but a double barreled shotgun manifestly could not disappear in that fashion so much out of the ordinary way of things.
“I think I’ll have a look at the post office and larn what mischief the villain done there.”
He veered in his course and came to the back window, where a light showed that some persons were gathered. He found 217 mother, daughter and the three boys, who gave him warm greeting.
“Was that your gun we heard a little while ago?” asked the woman. ”

“ Hopalong remarked sadly, leading the way out of the saloon and towards the hardware store.
“You better get out!” shouted the man with the mallet, waving the weapon defiantly. “An' don't you never come back again, neither,” he warned.
“Hey, it leaked,” Hopalong said pleasantly as he closed the door of the hardware store behind him, whereupon the clerk jumped and reached for the sawed-off shotgun behind the counter. Sawed-off shotguns are great institutions for arguing at short range, almost as effective as dynamite in clearing away obstacles. ”

“ Rooks and rabbits are shot with miniature rifles but the rooks are shot when young and unable to fly, sitting on the branches of the trees near their nests, and the rabbits also when sitting outside their holes.
In England the general public never shoot rifles in sport, except those who shoot sitting shots at rooks and rabbits.
The idea has therefore arisen that the rifle and [Pg 155] pistol are not weapons to use in sport but merely implements at the game of bull’s-eye shooting, and that the shotgun is the sporting firearm. ”

“ The big man had been wakened by the noise, and had fired both barrels of a shotgun into Nag just behind the hood. ”

“ The guns used on this occasion are the cheapest kind of muzzle-loading single-barreled shotguns. The balls used are of such size that they will drop to the bottom of the chamber. No patching is used, and a jar on the ground is deemed sufficient to settle the ball upon the powder. ”

“ I wouldn't like to use them on big game like Bear and Deer, but I'd be glad if shotguns was done away with and small game could be killed only with arrows. They are either sure death or clear miss. There's no cripples to get away and die. You can't fire an arrow into a flock of birds and wipe out one hundred, like you can with one of them blame scatterguns. It's them things that is killing off all the small game. Some day they'll invent a scattergun that is a pump repeater like them new rifles, and when every fool has one they'll wonder where all the small game has gone to. ”

“ DC9 and TEC–22; and “ (ix) revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar to) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12; “ (B) a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of— “ (i) a folding or telescoping stock; “ (ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon ”

“ The shooter cocks the rifle and aims at a target a foot high on the other side of the room, and when his aim is satisfactory, pulls the trigger. When this is done an electrical connection is made which shoots forward the rod which is on the standard, so that its point punches a hole in a miniature target like a visiting card, which is placed in front of it, which hole is mathematically on the same relative place on the card target as would have been made in the target at which the shooter was aiming if he had a bullet in his rifle. ”

“ The proud owner of a cherished gun would never leave it near a hechs, lest she run her cold trembling hand along the barrel and forever destroy its accuracy. There were also spells or pow-wowing to make a gun shoot perfectly, and these were put on before a foe was to be removed, and more especially with the heavy rifles used at shooting matches. Needles and papers written full of incantations were slipped under the barrels where they joined the stocks to keep away the witches. The writer has seen Robert Covenhoven's rifle with thirteen notches on the under side of the stock. ”

“ He is made familiar with the weapon in the fullest sense of the word "familiar," for shooting is not altogether a matter of blazing away ammunition; the good shot is the man who has a thorough knowledge of the various parts of his weapon, and who has been taught to nurse it and care for it just as the Breton lad nursed and cared for his cow. The equivalent of the British Morris tube is requisitioned to instruct the conscript in the first elements of firing a rifle. ”