will
put within a circle at a given distance. As a rule the factory test
pattern will be found on a tag attached to the gun. If not, you can
easily get the pattern yourself. The usual distance for targeting a
new gun is thirty yards, and the standard circle is thirty inches.
Make a circle on the barn door with a piece of chalk and string
fifteen inches long. First drive a nail into the wood and fasten the
string to it with the chalk on the loose end. Then describe and
measure ninety feet from the target. Fire as nearly as you can at the
centre of the circle and count the shot that are inside the chalk
mark. In order not to count the same shot twice mark them off with a
pencil. Perhaps a surer way would be to fire at the door first and in
the centre of the load of shot drive the nail and describe a circle
afterward. The chief advantage of studying the pattern of your gun is
to know just how much it scatters and how far it may be depended upon
to shoot and kill.

In a choke-bore gun, the end of the barrel is drawn in slightly and
made smaller to keep the shot together. Guns that are used in duck and
goose hunting are usually full choked as most of the shots are long
ones, but for ordinary brush and field shooting a gun that has a full
cylinder right barrel and a modified choke on the left will be the
best for general purposes.

The best size is 12-bore or gauge. Ten gauge guns are entirely too
heavy for general use and the smaller bores, such as sixteen or even
twenty gauge, while they are very light and dainty, are not a typical
all around gun for a boy who can only afford to have one size. The
smaller bores, however, have become very popular in recent years and
much may be said in their favour.

The standard length of barrels is either twenty-eight or thirty
inches. The shorter length will probably be just as satisfactory and
makes a much better proportion between the stock and barrels. You can
easily test the amount of choke in a 12-gauge gun. A new ten-cent
piece will just go inside the end of the barrel of a full cylinder gun
and just fail to go into one that has been slightly choked.

While it is impossible to give any written directions for shooting
that are as valuable as actual practice, the important thing for a
beginner is to get his form right at first, just as in golf or
horseback riding, and then to make up his mind that every shot has got
to count.

Rifle shooting is entirely different from shot-gun