Fowling Piece, a weapon used by sportsmen for killing small game. It has always been, among dilettanti addicted to hunting as a pastime, the object of much extravagant and capricious fancy. Like bibliomania, the passion for sporting weapons is often concerned with the extrinsic rather than the intrinsic merit of its object; and weapons by particular makers are valued like the handiwork of the Elzevirs and Foulises, and for similar reasons. The barrels are the most important part of this weapon, and in their construction the maker endeavors to secure the greatest possible lightness consistent with the requisite strength. Before the invention of cast steel, and before the manipulation of that metal was well understood, wrought iron only was used. The iron obtained from the Catalan forges and bloomaries, so generally used a century ago, was, from the nature of the process and materials, of excellent quality. The old habit of saving and reworking scrap iron of all forms tended further to improve it; and it is not surprising to find that, for gun barrels requiring the best iron, small scrap, like old nails, wire, and waste clippings of metal, should have been resorted to.

Old horse nails (stubs) were viewed with especial favor, and popular tradition attached some mysterious virtue to the iron which had performed service in a horse's hoof; they were always saved by farriers with scrupulous care, and sold to the gun makers. The real utility of such material, aside from the quality due to repeated manufacture, lies in the fact that the damask, or shading of barrels, cannot be obtained without using small pieces of iron, which must be welded together, and drawn down into rods under the hammer, and, when twisted and worked into the barrel, must be etched with acids. In welding together these small fragments, a film of cinder forms upon the surface of each; and in the subsequent forging, drawing, or twisting, this film constitutes a vein in the metal, and is made visible by its darker color and the greater facility with which it is dissolved by acids. When the value and properties of cast steel became known, this metal was used in gun barrels, at first in small quantities, but gradually to the extent of three fourths; and finally the highest grade of workmanship involved the use of steel alone. 1. Damask (or "Damascus") barrels are made of metal prepared in the following manner: Alternate strips or layers of soft wrought iron and steel are piled together, and drawn down into rods 3/16 of an inch square.

These rods are then twisted to an extreme degree, until the original angles describe 16 to 20 turns around the axis of the rod in every inch of its length. They are again squared, and three of them are welded together laterally, and drawn into a rod about half an inch wide and a quarter of an inch thick. 2. Wire twist is piled in the same manner and with the same materials as damask, but is drawn into rods three eighths of an inch wide, and of variable thickness. They are not subjected to torsion, like damask, but are hammered at once into the gauge required for coiling, so that the alternating layers of iron and steel may appear like a series of consolidated wires, running around the barrel. 3. The stub twist is forged from a mixture of iron and steel, clipped into shreds, heated, tilted, and rolled into a small rod. This rod is cut into short lengths, which are piled, and drawn into a ribbon of suitable dimensions for coiling. 4. Stub damask is made from the same materials as stub twist, but the rods after the first drawing are subjected to a high degree of torsion, and two or three of them are then welded laterally to form the ribbon. 5. Charcoal iron, or carbonized iron, for barrels, is made from the punchings and clippings of plate and sheet iron, melted and cast into an ingot, which is rolled into rods, the same as stub twist. 6. Three-penny skelp is made by fagoting scrap iron, without steel, heating it in an air furnace, and forging it into small rods, which are cut up, and again tilted into the proper form. . 7. Two-penny or Wednesbury skelp is similar to the foregoing, but a lower grade of scrap is used. 8. Sham-damn skelp is common wrought iron, forged at once into the ribbon, and intended only for the commonest article of trade.

Of the foregoing varieties the stub twist is the best, though a good wire twist, if perfectly sound, is fully equal to it; but the latter is more liable to imperfect welding, and the barrels made from it have been known to break transversely; but this is a rare occurrence, and they are not liable to burst. The damask and stub damask are, when skilfully made, very beautiful barrels, of great strength, and slightly inferior to the stub and wire twists. The most curious and elegant damask is made at Liege, and many beautiful specimens are produced at Birmingham in England, at Vienna, Geneva, and Berlin. 9. Of all barrels, those of laminated steel combine in the highest degree lightness and strength, and, though less curious and elaborate in their damaskeening than the true damask, are yet very handsomely shaded. They are made by piling alternate sheets of steel and wrought iron, the former being much the thicker, and hammering the pile down until the laminae are exceedingly thin. The laminae are disposed in wavy forms, and their disposition is varied in many ways.

Torsion is sometimes given to a moderate extent; but an extreme degree of it is avoided, as it tends to diminish the absolute strength of the ribbon.-The ribbons of various materials are coiled into the form of the barrel, around a mandrel, and the edges of the helix are welded together, about three inches at a heat, by "jumping the coil on an anvil. The various kinds of barrels made at Birmingham are characterized by the width of the ribbon, used for the coil. Thus, the width of the Birmingham damask ribbon is 11/16 of an inch; of the stub twist, §; of the stub damask, 13/16; of the charcoal iron, -i-; of the three-penny skelp, 3/4; of the two-penny skelp, 1 inch; and of the sham-damn, 1 1/2 inch. Most frequently the latter is not twisted at all, but is lap-welded at once into a tube. These dimensions, together with the texture of the etching (when the etching is genuine), are of assistance in identifying the structure. The Liege damask is usually much smaller, both in tracery and in width of helix. Barrels are frequently veneered with damask over a tube of inferior metal, and this deception is difficult to detect in many cases, so artfully is the barrel covered not only in its cylindrical part, but at the ends. But first-class makers never resort to this trick.

Veneered barrels are usually thicker and heavier than the varieties they are intended to simulate. It is obvious that a barrel of sufficient strength can be made of the poorest of the foregoing qualities, if the sportsman is willing to tolerate an increased weight; but a sham-damn or two-penny skelp, no thicker than a stub-twist of the best quality, would be nearly as dangerous to the hunter as to his quarry. Excellent barrels are now made of Bessemer and Siemens Martin steel, rivalling all but the laminated steel in absolute strength. They are perfectly plain, without weld or damask, and are made very cheaply, in the same manner as musket barrels (see Musket), by drawing a hollow cylinder of steel to the proper dimensions over a bulbed mandrel. The two barrels of a double-barrelled fowling piece are united by brazing or soldering to an intermediate rib. The taper of the barrels is such that in the setting the two axes converge at a point about 40 yards in front of the muzzle. With this degree of convergence, the cross sections of the rib should be uniform at all points.

The best and lightest barrels are usually finished externally in such a manner that a line drawn from breech to muzzle is slightly convex toward the axis of the barrel, and concave outward, and in this case the rib requires very skilful fitting. The lock of the piece is the member most liable to derangement by use. It should be of simple construction, and rather massive. A light, delicate lock should be regarded with suspicion. The points most worthy of attention are: 1. The method of attaching the main spring to the tumbler. The pivots should be large and strong, and fitted with precision. The hammer should be set, with reference to the main spring, in such a manner that the spring may exert its most direct action and greatest force when the hammer is down. 2. The pivot of the sear should be set so that it will be disengaged freely by the trigger, without danger of wearing too much, and at the same time be in no danger of catching at the half-cock notch. 3. The main spring should be attached to the lock plate so that it can be removed readily, and a new one substituted by a good workman. This spring is liable to lose its tension by age, whether in use or not.-Within the past ten years breech-loading fowling pieces have come into general use.

That they are more convenient than muzzle-loaders cannot be questioned, and there is no material point in which they are objectionable, excepting the greater cost of weapon and ammunition, which is more than compensated by their great advantages. A serviceable breech-loader involves the use of prepared cartridges, well primed and enclosed in cases of metal or other strong material; copper or brass cases are much the best, since they can be made to enter the chamber loosely, and the elasticity of the metal allows a temporary expansion during the act of discharge, without producing any permanent enlargement, thus permitting the case to be readily extracted afterward. The metal case, moreover, forms a perfect gas check. Papier-mache cases are objectionable, because they are liable to change their dimensions, expanding when long exposed to dampness, and contracting when they dry. Many ready-primed cartridges are liable to failure through a deterioration of the priming. This is a paste containing mercuric fulminate, and the most frequent cause of deterioration is a feeble but continuous voltaic action, which is generated when the fulminate is in contact with two kinds of metal.

If a single kind of metal is used (either copper or brass) to form the receptacle of the fulminate, this will not occur, and the primer will retain its sensitiveness. The variety of breech-loading weapons described in special treatises on this subject is very great.