Shooting in Wet Weather

 

Reprint from The Sportsman’s Cabinet and Town and Country Magazine, Vol I. Dec. 1832, Pg. 94-95

To the Editor of the Cabinet.

SIR,

Possessing that anxious feeling so common among shooters on the near approach of the 12th of August, I honestly confess I was not able to sleep on the night of the 11th, so prepossessed was I with anticipations of the following day’s diversion; and although the weather was unfavourable, I groped my way up the mountains before the dawn of day. With my double copper cap percussion, I conceived myself proof against the weather, and was weak enough to suppose I could pursue my diversion despite of the rain. It is true, I discharged my gun several times, and it is equally true that I attempted to discharge it many more; and though the priming uniformly exploded, yet the gunpowder in the barrel did not ignite.  I was for some time at a loss to account for this; but a careful examination convinced me that this defect arose from the size of the air-hole, which in my fowling-piece is much too large, and for which indeed there is not the least occasion. To be more explicit:—my gun is formed with what the gunmakers call collars; or in other words, at the breech end of it, where the touch-hole in a flint-lock gun is situated, project two cylindrical pieces of iron, called collars, into which the peg or touch hole is fixed, and upon which the copper cap is placed: at the end of these collars there is a small hole, called the air hole (for which I can perceive not the least occasion either in theory or practice) which, in my gun, is about half the size of a common touch-hole; and into this hole the rain insinuated itself, and, as gunpowder possesses a powerful principle of absorption, so the charge thus becoming wet, did not ignite by the flash produced from the explosion or combustion of the priming; and thus I lost several brace of grouse. The moors upon which I shot, were exceedingly wet, more so than I can recollect, yet the game lay well, and I levelled my gun at eight beautiful shots, which all escaped from the reason which I have just assigned. This, you will easily admit, Mr. Editor, was, to say the least of it, a most vexatious circumstance; and though shooting in rain very much neutralizes the pleasure of the diversion, yet on the present occasion I should certainly have persevered for some time longer, had it not been for the circumstance I have just mentioned. Prior to ascending the mountains, I had prepared a number of primings by placing wax* upon the percussion powder priming already in the bottom of the cap. This precaution rendered the primings completely impervious to the wet—they never missed, and had it not been for the unlucky airhole, I should certainly have bagged a few brace of birds, notwithstanding the continued misty rain.

I met with a gentleman in my range with a similar gun to my own, except that it had no air-holes, and as he had prepared his caps with a little tallow (which is not equal to the wax I have just mentioned) his gun was rendered completely water-proof.

On mentioning the circumstance to my gunmaker, he remarked, that he had formed air-holes in all the percussion guns which he had made, under an idea that they would thus be less liable to burst, as well as that the powder in the barrel would be more rapidly ignited.—I must confess these appeared very cogent reasons; but they were merely theoretical; for, on discharging my gun after the holes in question were stopped, I perceived no difference in the discharge, nor the least tendency to bursting of the barrels.

However, shooting in rain, after all is not remarkably pleasant, though ardent sportsmen are sometimes apt to attempt it. But, prepared in the manner above described, a shooter may keep the field in drizzling rain ; but when it falls heavily and fast, his clothes, to say nothing of his fowling piece, become in a short time, so saturated with moisture, that he will find it next to impossible to keep his gun powder dry, or to load his gun. Finally, it should be remarked, that those who wish to retain the air-hole (those in my gun, were, I believe, much too large, even allowing such apertures to be necessary) should, in hazy or wet weather, fill it with tallow or the wax above mentioned, which will of course, render it water-proof.

* The wax here mentioned, is thus prepared:—

  • Of tallow, two parts,
  • Of white soap, three parts,
  • Of hog’s-lard, one part,
  • which should be melted and mixed together, till the whole is quite smooth. As the soap is more difficult to melt than either of the other ingredients, so it re quires this operation, before they are added. By making a small mortar tolerably warm, the soap may be melted, when the tallow and hog’s-lard may be added, and the whole stirred with a pestle till it is perfectly smooth. This was used to prevent wet penetrating into Forsyth’s magazine, and is very superior to tallow, particularly as it is much less affected by heat: while perhaps it may be justly remarked that the priming fires better with it than with tallow.

Your’s respectfully,
A Shooter.

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Man looks at severed hand and foot….for refusing to climb a tree to cut rubber for King Leopold

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Victim of King Leopold of Belgium

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Traditional JuJutsu Health, Strength and Combat Tricks

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CHAPTER V

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Furniture Polishing Cream

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?

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Tools:

Round needles: https://amzn.to/2S9IhrP Double pointed hand needle: https://amzn.to/3bDmWPp Hand tools: https://amzn.to/2Rytirc Staple gun (for beginner): https://amzn.to/2JZs3x1 Compressor [...] Read more →

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Crewe Hall Dining Room

 

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Nov. 12, 1898 Forest and Stream Pg. 396

The Veterans to the Front.

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Country House Christmas Pudding

Country House Christmas Pudding

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1 cup Christian Bros Brandy ½ cup Myer’s Dark Rum ½ cup Jim Beam Whiskey 1 cup currants 1 cup sultana raisins 1 cup pitted prunes finely chopped 1 med. apple peeled and grated ½ cup chopped dried apricots ½ cup candied orange peel finely chopped 1 ¼ cup [...] Read more →

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The Character of a Happy Life

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Carpenters’ Furniture

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CIA 1950s Unevaluated UFO Intelligence

 

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

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Sea and River Fishing

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Palermo Wine

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Shooting in Wet Weather

 

Reprint from The Sportsman’s Cabinet and Town and Country Magazine, Vol I. Dec. 1832, Pg. 94-95

To the Editor of the Cabinet.

SIR,

Possessing that anxious feeling so common among shooters on the near approach of the 12th of August, I honestly confess I was not able [...] Read more →

Clairvoyance and Occult Powers

Vishnu as the Cosmic Man (Vishvarupa) Opaque watercolour on paper – Jaipur, Rajasthan c. 1800-50

 

CLAIRVOYANCE AND OCCULT POWERS

By Swami Panchadasi

Copyright, 1916

By Advanced Thought Pub. Co. Chicago, Il

INTRODUCTION.

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Of Decorated Furniture

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Indian Modes of Hunting – Musquash

Hudson Bay: Trappers, 1892. N’Talking Musquash.’ Fur Trappers Of The Hudson’S Bay Company Talking By A Fire. Engraving After A Drawing By Frederic Remington, 1892.

Indian Modes of Hunting.

IV.—Musquash.

In Canada and the United States, the killing of the little animal known under the several names of [...] Read more →

The First Christian Man Cremated in America

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The first Christian white man to be cremated in America was [...] Read more →

The Basics of Painting in the Building Trade

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Watch Fraud on eBay

EBAY’S FRAUD PROBLEM IS GETTING WORSE

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Chinese 9 Course Dinner

The following recipes form the most popular items in a nine-course dinner program:

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Soak one pound bird’s nest in cold water overnight. Drain the cold water and cook in boiling water. Drain again. Do this twice. Clean the bird’s nest. Be sure [...] Read more →

Vitruvius Ten Books on Architecture

VITRUVIUS

The Ten Books on Architecture

TRANSLATED By MORRIS HICKY MORGAN, PH.D., LL.D. LATE PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND ORIGINAL DESINGS PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF HERBERT LANGFORD WARREN, A.M.

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Thomas Jefferson Correspondence – On Seed Saving and Sharing

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Naval Stores – Distilling Turpentine

Chipping a Turpentine Tree

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Horn Measurement

Jul. 23, 1898 Forest and Stream, Pg. 65

Horn Measurements.

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The Hatha Yoga Pradipika

THE HATHA YOGA PRADIPIKA

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Panini Office, Allahabad [1914]

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Here’s Many a Year to You

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The Snipe

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The First Greek Book by John Williams White

Click here to read The First Greek Book by John Williams White

The First Greek Book - 15.7MB

IN MEMORIAM

JOHN WILLIAMS WHITE

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Copper Kills Covid-19 and the Sun is Your Friend

The element copper effectively kills viruses and bacteria.

Therefore it would reason and I will assert and not only assert but lay claim to the patents for copper mesh stints to be inserted in the arteries of patients presenting with severe cases of Covid-19 with a slow release dosage of [...] Read more →

Mortlake Tapestries of Chatsworth

Mortlake Tapestries at Chatsworth House

Click here to learn more about the Mortlake Tapestries of Chatsworth

The Mortlake Tapestries were founded by Sir Francis Crane.

From the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 13

Crane, Francis by William Prideaux Courtney

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The Cremation of Sam McGee

Robert W. Service (b.1874, d.1958)

 

There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, But the queerest they ever did see Was that night [...] Read more →

History of the Cabildo in New Orleans

Cabildo circa 1936

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Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois and the Dulwich Picture Gallery

Noel Desenfans and Sir Francis Bourgeois, circa 1805 by Paul Sandby, watercolour on paper

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Birth of United Fruit Company

From Conquest of the Tropics by Frederick Upham Adams

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Tuna Record

TROF. C. F. HOLDFER AND HIS 183LBS. TUNA, WITH BOATMAN JIM GARDNER.

July 2, 1898. Forest and Stream Pg. 11

The Tuna Record.

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How to Distinguish Fishes

 

Sept. 3, 1898. Forest and Stream Pg. 188-189

How to Distinguish Fishes.

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Preserving Iron and Steel Surfaces with Paint

Painting the Brooklyn Bridge, Photo by Eugene de Salignac , 1914

 

Excerpt from: The Preservation of Iron and Steel Structures by F. Cosby-Jones, The Mechanical Engineer January 30, 1914

Painting.

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Gold and Economic Freedom

by Alan Greenspan, 1967

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Indian Modes of Hunting – Setting Fox Traps

Aug. 13, 1898 Forest and Stream, Pg. 125

Game Bag and Gun.

Indian Modes of Hunting. III.—Foxes.

The fox as a rule is a most wily animal, and numerous are the stories of his cunning toward the Indian hunter with his steel traps.

The Apparatus of the Stock Market

Sucker

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How Long is Your Yacht?

Dominion, Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club,Winner of Seawanhaka Cup, 1898.

The Tail Wags the Dog.

The following is a characteristic sample of those broad and liberal views on yachting which are the pride of the Boston Herald. Speaking of the coming races for the Seawanhaka international challenge cup, it says:

[...] Read more →

Artist Methods

Como dome facade – Pliny the Elder – Photo by Wolfgang Sauber

Work in Progress…

THE VARNISHES.

Every substance may be considered as a varnish, which, when applied to the surface of a solid body, gives it a permanent lustre. Drying oil, thickened by exposure to the sun’s heat or [...] Read more →

The Human Seasons

John Keats

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David Starkey: Britain’s Last Great Historian

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Tuna and Tarpon

July, 16, l898 Forest and Stream Pg. 48

Tuna and Tarpon.

New York, July 1.—Editor Forest and Stream: If any angler still denies the justice of my claim, as made in my article in your issue of July 2, that “the tuna is the grandest game [...] Read more →

King James Bible – Knights Templar Edition

Full Cover, rear, spine, and front

Published by Piranesi Press in collaboration with Country House Essays, this beautiful paperback version of the King James Bible is now available for $79.95 at Barnes and Noble.com

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Rendering Amber Clear for Use in Lens-Making for Magnifying Glass

by John Partridge,drawing,1825

From the work of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake entitled Materials for a history of oil painting, (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1846), we learn the following:

The effect of oil at certain temperatures, in penetrating “the minute pores of the amber” (as Hoffman elsewhere writes), is still more [...] Read more →

The Legacy of Felix de Weldon

Felix Weihs de Weldon, age 96, died broke in the year 2003 after successive bankruptcies and accumulating $4 million dollars worth of debt. Most of the debt was related to the high cost of love for a wife living with Alzheimer’s. Health care costs to maintain his first wife, Margot, ran $500 per [...] Read more →

Carpet Cleaner Formulae

The Ardabil Carpet – Made in the town of Ardabil in north-west Iran, the burial place of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili, who died in 1334. The Shaykh was a Sufi leader, ancestor of Shah Ismail, founder of the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722). While the exact origins of the carpet are unclear, it’s believed to have [...] Read more →

Harry Houdini Investigates the Spirit World

The magician delighted in exposing spiritualists as con men and frauds.

By EDMUND WILSON June 24, 1925

Houdini is a short strong stocky man with small feet and a very large head. Seen from the stage, his figure, with its short legs and its pugilist’s proportions, is less impressive than at close [...] Read more →

A Survey of Palestine – 1945-1946

This massive volume gives one a real visual sense of what it was like running a highly efficient colonial operation in the early 20rh Century. It will also go a long way to help anyone wishing to understand modern political intrigue in the Middle-East.

Click here to read A Survey of Palestine [...] Read more →

Public Attitudes Towards Speculation

Reprint from The Pitfalls of Speculation by Thomas Gibson 1906 Ed.

THE PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARD SPECULATION

THE public attitude toward speculation is generally hostile. Even those who venture frequently are prone to speak discouragingly of speculative possibilities, and to point warningly to the fact that an overwhelming majority [...] Read more →

The Black Grouper or Jewfish.

 

Nov. 5. 1898 Forest and Stream Pg. 371-372

The Black Grouper or Jewfish.

New Smyrna, Fla., Oct. 21.—Editor Forest and Stream:

It is not generally known that the fish commonly called jewfish. warsaw and black grouper are frequently caught at the New Smyrna bridge [...] Read more →

Zulu Yawl

Dec. 10, 1898 Forest and Stream Pg. 477-479

Zulu.

The little ship shown in the accompanying plans needs no description, as she speaks for herself, a handsome and shipshape craft that a man may own for years without any fear that she will go to pieces [...] Read more →

Cleaning Watch Chains

To Clean Watch Chains.

Gold or silver watch chains can be cleaned with a very excellent result, no matter whether they may be matt or polished, by laying them for a few seconds in pure aqua ammonia; they are then rinsed in alcohol, and finally. shaken in clean sawdust, free from sand. [...] Read more →

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. “Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!” he said. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. Home Top of [...] Read more →

The First Pineapple Grown in England

First Pineapple Grown in England

Click here to read an excellent article on the history of pineapple growing in the UK.

Should one be interested in serious mass scale production, click here for scientific resources.

Growing pineapples in the UK.

The video below demonstrates how to grow pineapples in Florida.

[...] Read more →

The Kalmar War

Wojna Kalmarska – 1611

The Kalmar War

From The Historian’s History of the World (In 25 Volumes) by Henry Smith William L.L.D. – Vol. XVI.(Scandinavia) Pg. 308-310

The northern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, as already noticed, had been peopled from the remotest times by nomadic tribes called Finns or Cwenas by [...] Read more →

Cocillana Syrup Compound

Guarea guidonia

Recipe

5 Per Cent Alcohol 8-24 Grain – Heroin Hydrochloride 120 Minims – Tincture Euphorbia Pilulifera 120 Minims – Syrup Wild Lettuce 40 Minims – Tincture Cocillana 24 Minims – Syrup Squill Compound 8 Gram – Ca(s)ecarin (P, D, & Co.) 8-100 Grain Menthol

Dose – One-half to one fluidrams (2 to [...] Read more →

Pickled Eels

Vintage woodcut illustration of a Eel

 

This dish is a favorite in Northern Europe, from the British Isles to Sweden.

Clean and skin the eels and cut them into pieces about 3/4-inch thick. Wash and drain the pieces, then dredge in fine salt and allow to stand from 30 [...] Read more →

Clairvoyance – Methods of Development

CLAIRVOYANCE

by C. W. Leadbeater

Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Pub. House

[1899]

CHAPTER IX – METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT

When a men becomes convinced of the reality of the valuable power of clairvoyance, his first question usually is, “How can [...] Read more →

JP Morgan’s Digital Currency Patent Application

J.P. Morgan Patent #8,452,703

Method and system for processing internet payments using the electronic funds transfer network.

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention include a method and system for conducting financial transactions over a payment network. The method may include associating a payment address of an account [...] Read more →

Making Apple Cider Vinegar

The greatest cause of failure in vinegar making is carelessness on the part of the operator. Intelligent separation should be made of the process into its various steps from the beginning to end.

PRESSING THE JUICE

The apples should be clean and ripe. If not clean, undesirable fermentations [...] Read more →

The Public Attitude Towards Speculation

Reprint from The Pitfalls of Speculation by Thomas Gibson 1906 Ed.

THE PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARD SPECULATION

THE public attitude toward speculation is generally hostile. Even those who venture frequently are prone to speak discouragingly of speculative possibilities, and to point warningly to the fact that an [...] Read more →

The Real Time Piece Gentleman and the Digital Watch Vault

Paul Thorpe, Brighton, U.K.

The YouTube watch collecting world is rather tight-knit and small, but growing, as watches became a highly coveted commodity during the recent world-wide pandemic and fueled an explosion of online watch channels.

There is one name many know, The Time Piece Gentleman. This name for me [...] Read more →

Banana Propagation

Banana Propagation

Reprinted from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA.org)

The traditional means of obtaining banana planting material (“seed”) is to acquire suckers from one’s own banana garden, from a neighbor, or from a more distant source. This method served to spread common varieties around the world and to multiply them [...] Read more →

The Preparation of Marketable Vinegar

It is unnecessary to point out that low-grade fruit may often be used to advantage in the preparation of vinegar. This has always been true in the case of apples and may be true with other fruit, especially grapes. The use of grapes for wine making is an outlet which [...] Read more →