from those which I had been in the
habit of attending in my younger days. In olden times the contest was
carried on chiefly with _shot-guns_, a generic term which, in those
days, embraced three descriptions of firearms: _Indian-traders_ (a long,
cheap, but sometimes excellent kind of gun, that mother Britain used to
send hither for traffic with the Indians), _the large musket_, and the
_shot-gun_, properly so-called. Rifles were, however, always permitted
to compete with them, under equitable restrictions. These were, that
they should be fired off-hand, while the shot-guns were allowed a rest,
the distance being equal; or that the distance should be one hundred
yards for a rifle, to sixty for the shot-gun, the mode of firing being
equal.

But this was a match of rifles exclusively; and these are by far the
most common at this time.

Most of the competitors fire at the same target; which is usually a
board from nine inches to a foot wide, charred on one side as black as
it can be made by fire, without impairing materially the uniformity of
its surface; on the darkened side of which is _pegged_ a square piece of
white paper, which is larger or smaller, according to the distance at
which it is to be placed from the marksmen. This is almost invariably
sixty yards, and for it the paper is reduced to about two and a half
inches square. Out of the center of it is cut a rhombus of about the
width of an inch, measured diagonally; this is the _bull's-eye_, or
_diamond_, as the marksmen choose to call it; in the center of this is
the cross. But every man is permitted to fix his target to his own
taste; and accordingly, some remove one-fourth of the paper, cutting
from the center of the square to the two lower corners, so as to leave a
large angle opening from the center downward; while others reduce the
angle more or less: but it is rarely the case that all are not satisfied
with one of these figures.

The beef is divided into five prizes, or, as they are commonly termed,
five _quarters_--the hide and tallow counting as one. For several years
after the revolutionary war, a sixth was added: the _lead_ which was
shot in the match. This was the prize of the sixth best shot; and it
used to be carefully extracted from the board or tree in which it was
lodged, and afterward remoulded. But this grew out of the exigency of
the times, and has, I believe, been long since abandoned everywhere.

The three master shots and rivals were Mos