Firearms in 1876
Firearms—Muzzle-loaders —Breech-loaders —Rifles —Revolvers —Shot-belt versus Pouch—The 
better Plan for cleaning Guns.

It would serve no useful purpose, nor in any way aid you in the choice of firearms, were I to attempt a dissertation 
on the respective merits of breech and muzzle loaders, or rifle versus shot gun. 'A man who gives in against his will 
remains the same opinion still,' says the adage, and true enough it is too. Few sportsmen nowadays would say very
much, if anything at all, in praise of the poor discarded muzzle-loader. It has had its time, like stage coachmen, 
comfortable, homely roadside inns, with the smiling landlady, rosy barmaid, civil waiter, and 'good accommodation 
for man and horse.' I am not sure whether I do not even now prefer those old times to the present. I do not care
about fashionable places, and particularly dislike large hotels; and somehow have an instinctive dread of getting 
into the clutches of landladies and lodging-house keepers, who wear rustling silk dresses, and 'sail' about rather 
than walk as ordinary women; if by any mischance I am driven to seek shelter in a monster inn or gorgeous 
first-floor front, I make up my mind to boar and to suffer, and to leave, if not a wiser certainly a poorer man.

Give me an old-fashioned road-side inn for comfort and quietude. What do I want more, so that I get my meals with 
a decent amount of regularity, and that they are good of their kind. No reasonable person would desire to be 
hoisted up to his bedroom by machinery, as if he were a trunk or a bale of goods; or prefer to be waited on — or, 
rather, kept waiting — by an army of pale-faced men clad in seedy black and very loose shoes (I often wonder 
where waiters at hotels get their shoes), to having wholesome food served by a smart maid-of-all work, and a 
bedroom only a single story high; if there be such an one, he had better go to fashionable places where hotels are 
to be found, conducted on the un-limited liability system, 'combining,' I quote from an advertisement, ' the 
convenience of a hotel with all the comforts of a home.'
 
The operation of quietly putting in my powder and shot, and listening to the screech and weeze of the wad as it 
glides down the barrel, pressed on by the sturdy ramrod, whilst surveying my dogs crouching closely and waiting in 
panting anxiety for the 'hold up' and 'seek dead,' affords me more substantial pleasure than does the rapid loading 
and firing of the new and improved breech loading shot guns. After all, this is only a matter of opinion. I have never 
tried a breech-loading shotgun when away on a long hunting expedition, hence I am not able to state from 
experience how such a gun would answer, exposed as it necessarily must be to the effects of wet, the grinding 
power of sand and dirt in the hinge or hinges, and the continued rough usage a gun invariably suffers when one is 
riding all day long, and sleeping at night in the open air. No opinion is worth a straw on this matter except it be 
deduced from the results of actual experience extending over a long period of time. 

A breechloader may be fitted to stand wear and tear quite as well as a muzzle-loader, for anything I can say to the
contrary, and it may be found from experiment that cartridges can be quite as conveniently carried, and replaced 
when exhausted, as shot powder and caps can be conveyed in the ordinary fashion. But until I am convinced either
by the experience of others, or by practically testing the virtues of the breechloader myself, when far removed from 
the aid of a gunsmith and for a period of time extending over not less than two years, that the modern 
breech-loading double-shot gun possesses all the advantages that the muzzle-loader has, added to greater facility 
in charging and discharging, I shall be chary how I trust to a breech-loader only, if I start again on a hunting 
expedition to an uncivilised country.

Call it prejudice if you like, obstinacy, or a stupid adherence to old ways and customs, simply because one has 
been used to them, nevertheless if you beat me by argument, I am after all only a verification of the adage just 
quoted. For real forest and prairie life I have thoroughly tested the muzzle-loader's powers of endurance and 
extreme usefulness for nearly every purpose a hunter can require a gun.

Except for unusually heavy wild beasts, I contend a shotgun is more useful than a rifle; long ranges are seldom, I 
may say never, required, and for any distance within eighty yards a good muzzle-loading shot-gun will carry a bullet 
as true as a rifle, and with a force of penetration quite equal to breaking the ribs of a bull-buffalo, or those of the 
much-dreaded grizzly bear, and what more can you desire? 

Then ducks, geese, grouse, and other feathered game add very materially to the comforts of the mess, to say 
nothing of the lesser furry tenants of both forest and open land. A load of shot I always find is much better and far
surer than a bullet in obtaining these pleasant additions to the stock-pot. 

It is quite as well to carry a rifle with you, if you have the means of transport at your disposal; but if it rested on 
choice, whether the shot-gun or the rifle should be taken, one of the two to be left behind, in that case I should not 
hesitate a moment; the rifle would be abandoned without a twinge of regret, for I know the other is equal to every
need. Let it be distinctly understood that my remarks in no way apply to jungle shooting in India, Africa, or 
elsewhere. The practical hints I offer are not intended to assist sportsmen and hunters who wage war upon lions, 
tigers, elephants, rhinosceri, together with other leviathans of the plains and forests. Hence I have purposely 
avoided alluding to any particular form of rifle or projectile, or to travelling with camels or elephants.

Natives only understand the management and tempers of these half-reasoning capricious beasts, and every 
information the most practised camel or elephant traveller could impart would be of no good whatever to a white
man, because he could never turn such knowledge to a profitable account. Moreover, countries wherein camels,
elephants, and dromedaries are found so useful, with an exception or two — are unsuited to European colonisation,
and with such we have nothing to do.

To the wanderer in search of an eligible home in the wilderness, such information would prove of no possible 
service. My own equipment when I leave England for America, North and South, consists of one good strong
double-barrelled muzzle-loader, No. 12 bore, a Purdy's rifle to carry an ounce bullet, and a Colt's revolver; two 
large-sized powder flasks, covered with thick pigskin, and provided with several metal loops for slinging or fastening
it to your buttons or waist-belt.

Another of my old fashions is to prefer the double shot-belt, made of good leather, and provided with brass 
chargers which fasten in with a spring. These chargers are liable to get lost if they be not secured to the belt by 
small brass chains. I fancy shot carried across the shoulders in a belt never wearies one so much as it does when 
dangling in a pouch, suspended by a narrow leather strap. More than this, having two sizes of shot is a great 
convenience; I usually take duckshot in one side, and No. 6 or 8 in the other. A third reason for giving the 
preference to the old pattern charger is, that you see what you pour into your barrel, whereas a man loading in a 
hurry, or under the influence of intense excitement, often (I say often, because I have done it myself many times, 
and have witnessed the like mishap befall others) pushes the end of the patent 'spring-charger,' usually affixed to 
all shot pouches, into the end of the barrel, presses down the spring, which is supposed at the same time to shut off
the main supply and let out the charge of shot desired; then down goes his wad, and if he does not happen to
notice his ramrod he by-and-by fires, fondly imagining he had put a charge of shot into his gun. This is no 
imaginary case, as any person who has had a great deal of shooting will know. The shot very often jams in some 
way, and does not run from out the charger, an accident you are exceedingly likely to overlook if your attention is 
directed to some other object when loading. By using the old pattern charger this can never happen; if it does take 
a trifle more time to load than it would if the 'patent charger' were used, you have the satisfaction of knowing to a 
certainty that the shot is in the barrel, and the right quantity too.

In addition to shot, I usually carry a few bullets in my pocket, and a wire cartridge or two, if I am fortunate enough to 
possess any. A word or two more, and I have said all I deem needful about firearms. The pea or small-bore 
American rifle I do not like; the only advantage it can have over a large bore is that a much less weight of lead is 
carried by the hunter. I do not think the enormous thickness of the barrel supplies any material advantage, or gives
greater accuracy to the course of the bullet, neither have I seen any of those wonderful feats performed by 
trappers and hunters with the pea rifle, such as one reads of in all stories about American or Texan life. My own 
opinion is, that where one of these marvellous 'leather-stockings' shoots ordinarily well a dozen of them shoot 
badly, and miss as often as other persons. 

For cleaning firearms let me strongly recommend spirits of turpentine, in preference to oil or grease of any kind. I 
never use water, but content myself by wiping out my gun well with a hemp wad, saturated with spirits of turpentine. 
It at once removes all the powder and 'leading,' prevents rust, and does away with any chance of damp remaining, 
which it will do, even in spite of every precaution after washing out a gun with water. The better plan for carrying 
turpentine is to have a glass-stoppered bottle fitted into a wooden case. I am quite convinced that any person who 
once tries turpentine for gun-cleaning will discard water and oil for ever after.

It is a wise precaution to have with you in reserve a pair or two of spare mainsprings, at least two sets of ramrod 
fittings, and not less than three pairs of nipples; the latter I prefer 'inverted,' and bouched with platinum. 
Experience has clearly proved to my mind that with inverted nipples there is not nearly so great a liability to 
miss-fires from damp, neither are you annoyed with a small column of smoke curling up from each nipple when you 
fire. Further than this, I find the ordinary shaped nipple rapidly wears, and the hole soon becomes sufficiently large
to admit of an escape of gas sufficient to blow the hammer back to half-cock — a mishap very likely to break a 
mainspring. I have never known this to occur when the inverted pattern was employed, hence I invariably use them.

During the Commission I can safely say, for four years I fired my double-shot gun on an average a great many 
times every day, carried it on horse and mule-back, and also used it constantly in boat-shooting, but with the 
exception of replacing the nipples occasionally, and the loss of a ramrod or two, it was never once damaged or 
disabled. A breech-loader might have done as well, but I cannot quite admit it as an established fact until I have 
better evidence adduced than I am in possession of at present.

If yon use a gun-case, by all means have it made of strong leather, such as trunks are constructed of; wooden 
cases or such as are covered with black enamelled cloth or painted canvas are not worth a single snap for 
conveyance on mule back; the least neglect or carelessness on the part of the packer in placing your gun-case 
upon the load may be fatal to it in a moment. I have more than once seen a mahogany gun-case, although incased 
in a leather cover, broken by a sudden haul at the 'riata' into fragments.

It is of no use trusting to a gun maker to get a case made for you. Go yourself to a respectable trunk maker, show 
him the pattern you desire and approve, and tell him to manufacture you a case of the stoutest and best leather he 
can procure. Then you will be most likely to obtain an article which will last until your return at least, and probably 
through many another scramble by flood and field. To offer any further advice relative to rifles, or to attempt a 
description of the various kinds of projectiles at present in use, would be worse than ridiculous in these narrow 
limits when large volumes have been written and published on the subject. 

Every sportsman is sure to have his pet hobby, both as regards rifles, shot-guns, and projectiles; I, too, have mine. 
Let then each one ride his own hobby, and, brother wanderers, we shall do well not to ride against or try to unhorse
one another.

End of Excerpt.
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