The quantity of powder and shot which constitutes the correct load or charge for the fowling-piece, is a circumstance which ought to be duly impressed on the mind of every shooter, and to which, I am inclined to think, not sufficient attention is generally paid. On trial, it will be found that all guns shoot the strongest the first discharge, or, in other words, when they are perfectly clean, and that the force decreases in exact proportion as the piece becomes foul; hence the necessity of occasionally wiping out the barrel during a long day's shooting. There is also a certain proportion of powder and shot which will exactly suit every fowling-piece; and to ascertain this should be the first object with all new guns. If a piece be overloaded with powder, the shot will scatter very much, and but few pellets will strike the object; whereas, if an insufficient quantity of powder be used, the shot will not be driven with sufficient force. Yet, it is more than probable, that a trifling variation will be found in all guns; or, to speak more plainly, it will be a difficult matter to find two pieces, though of the same length and calibre, which require precisely the same charge. A very good method of ascertaining the proper load for a fowling-piece is by firing at sheets of paper at given distances, and the progressive results will guide the shooter in the increase or decrease of either the powder or shot, or both.

On investigation it will probably be found, that the general error in loading the fowling-piece, is using too much powder, which not only very much scatters the shot, but renders the recoil almost insupportable, - it is quite a mistaken notion to suppose that a distant object will be better reached with a large load of powder, or that the force of the shot is thus increased; as it will be found, on experiment, that those pellets which strike the mark are not so strongly driven as when a reduced, but a correct, portion of powder is Used, to say nothing of the scattering of the shot, by which a small object will generally be missed. Hence it is, highly necessary that the correct charge should be ascertained, and uniformly adopted.