Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
H.M. THE KING AS A BOY
THE
COMPLETE ENGLISH WING SHOT
PREFACE
When the publishers asked me to write a book uponShooting and its interest, I at first doubted whetherI knew enough of the matter to fill a book of much sizewithout repeating all the traditional lore that is to be found inevery unread text-book, but I had no sooner undertaken thebusiness than I came to a conclusion that has since beenconfirmed, that to deal as best I could, with the kind help ofmany sportsmen, with the controversial subjects would havetaken the whole space at my disposal for any one of them.Consequently, ever and again I have had to decide what toeliminate, and I have tried to leave out that which most peopleknow already, and to deal as best I can in short space withquestions that are now more or less under discussion, andconsequently those that game preservers and shooters in thisand other countries are thinking about. It has been verydifficult to draw a line between the controversial and currentsubjects and the unchallenged facts which have been too oftenrepeated already, but that this is the right principle is, I think,obvious from the position that the opposite course wouldinvolve. What is meant can be best explained by glancing ata few traditional survivals in gunnery and shooting, and itsaccompanying unnatural history, which, along with manyothers, would occupy space if one were to attempt to deal withall the accepted, as well as the repudiated, statements uponthem. Nobody wants to be told that he should put the powderinto a cartridge-case before the shot, but to begin at thevibeginning would involve the necessity of giving that and otherpuerile information. Nobody would be the better for a learnedchapter on gun actions. In the first place, these actions are nolonger patents, they are open to anyone who likes to use them,and consequently the days when one selected a gun-makerbecause his patent action was conceived to be the better, arelong gone by. The reason is that each gun-maker can betrusted to use the best principle when he has a choice of themall, or at least the best available for the money to be expendedupon its making in the gun. Ejectors are ne