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Shooting in Wet Weather

April 15th, 2019

 

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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Four Seasons fill the measure of the year; There are four seasons in the mind of man: He has his lusty spring, when fancy clear Takes in all beauty with an easy span; He has his Summer, when luxuriously Spring’s honied cud of youthful thoughts he loves To ruminate, and by such [...] Read more →

Carpenters’ Furniture

IT requires a far search to gather up examples of furniture really representative in this kind, and thus to gain a point of view for a prospect into the more ideal where furniture no longer is bought to look expensively useless in a boudoir, but serves everyday and commonplace need, such as [...] Read more →

Christmas Pudding with Dickens

Traditional British Christmas Pudding Recipe by Pen Vogler from the Charles Dickens Museum

Ingredients

85 grams all purpose flour pinch of salt 170 grams Beef Suet 140 grams brown sugar tsp. mixed spice, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, &c 170 grams bread crumbs 170 grams raisins 170 grams currants 55 grams cut mixed peel Gram to [...] Read more →

Travels by Narrowboat

Oh Glorious England, verdant fields and wandering canals…

In this wonderful series of videos, the CountryHouseGent takes the viewer along as he chugs up and down the many canals crisscrossing England in his classic Narrowboat. There is nothing like a free man charting his own destiny.

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Painting Plaster Work and the History of Terra Cotta

The 1896 Victorian terracotta Bell Edison Telephone Building – 17 & 19 Newhall Street, Birmingham, England. A grade I listed building designed by Frederick Martin of the firm Martin & Chamberlain. Now offices for firms of architects. Photographed 10 May 2006 by Oosoom

[Reprint from Victoria and Albert Museum included below on [...] Read more →

The Stock Exchange Specialist

New York Stock Exchange Floor September 26,1963

The Specialist as a member of a stock exchange has two functions.’ He must execute orders which other members of an exchange may leave with him when the current market price is away from the price of the orders. By executing these orders on behalf [...] Read more →

A History of the Use of Arsenicals in Man

The arsenicals (compounds which contain the heavy metal element arsenic, As) have a long history of use in man – with both benevolent and malevolent intent. The name ‘arsenic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘arsenikon’ which means ‘potent'”. As early as 2000 BC, arsenic trioxide, obtained from smelting copper, was used [...] Read more →

Bess of Hardwick: Four Times a Lady

Bess of Harwick

Four times the nuptial bed she warm’d, And every time so well perform’d, That when death spoil’d each husband’s billing, He left the widow every shilling. Fond was the dame, but not dejected; Five stately mansions she erected With more than royal pomp, to vary The prison of her captive When [...] Read more →

The Hoochie Coochie Hex

From Dr. Marvel’s 1929 book entitled Hoodoo for the Common Man, we find his infamous Hoochie Coochie Hex.

What follows is a verbatim transcription of the text:

The Hoochie Coochie Hex should not be used in conjunction with any other Hexes. This can lead to [...] Read more →

Fortune, Independence, and Competence

THE answer to the question, What is fortune has never been, and probably never will be, satisfactorily made. What may be a fortune for one bears but small proportion to the colossal possessions of another. The scores or hundreds of thousands admired and envied as a fortune in most of our communities [...] Read more →

Protecting Rare Books: How to Build a Silverfish Trap

Silverfish damage to book – photo by Micha L. Rieser

The beauty of hunting silverfish is that they are not the most clever of creatures in the insect kingdom.

Simply take a small clean glass jar and wrap it in masking tape. The masking tape gives the silverfish something to [...] Read more →

Commercial Fried Fish Cake Recipe

Dried Norwegian Salt Cod

Fried fish cakes are sold rather widely in delicatessens and at prepared food counters of department stores in the Atlantic coastal area. This product has possibilities for other sections of the country.

Ingredients:

Home Top of [...] Read more →

Blunderbuss Mai Tai Recipe

Blackbeard’s Jolly Roger

If you’re looking for that most refreshing of summertime beverages for sipping out on the back patio or perhaps as a last drink before walking the plank, let me recommend my Blunderbuss Mai Tai. I picked up the basics to this recipe over thirty years ago when holed up [...] Read more →

Tobacco as Medicine

The first published illustration of Nicotiana tabacum by Pena and De L’Obel, 1570–1571 (shrpium adversana nova: London).

Tobacco can be used for medicinal purposes, however, the ongoing American war on smoking has all but obscured this important aspect of ancient plant.

Tobacco is considered to be an indigenous plant of [...] Read more →