rolling, will not be stopped until you take your places for the
first beat of the afternoon, just as MARKHAM is telling you that his
old Governor never shoots with anything but an old muzzle-loader by
MANTON, and makes deuced good practice with it too.

"Choke" is not a very good topic; it doesn't last long. After you have
asked your neighbour if his gun is choked, and told him that your left
barrel has a modified choke, the subject is pretty well exhausted.

"Cast-off." Not to be recommended. There is very little to be made of
it.

Something may be done with the price of guns. There's sure to be
someone who has done all his best and straightest shooting with a gun
that cost him only £15. Everybody else will say, "It's perfect rot
giving such high prices for guns. You only pay for the name. Mere
robbery." But there isn't one of them who would consent not to be
robbed.

It sometimes creates a pretty effect to call your gun "My old
fire-iron," or "my bundook," or "this old gas-pipe of mine."

"Bore." Never pun on this word. It is never done in really good
sporting society. But you can make a few remarks, here and there,
about the comparative merits of twelve-bore and sixteen-bore. Choose
a good opening for telling your story of the man who shot with a
fourteen-bore gun, ran short of cartridges on a big day, and was, of
course, unable to borrow from anyone else. Hence you can deduce the
superiority of twelve-bores, as being the more common size.